We have started with senior citizens and it is for everyone to know that the govt is paying for all the facilities people are asking for
MANOJ JHAWAR, spokesperson, central railways (Pune division)
PUNE: It isn’t strange for train tickets in India to bear call-toaction messages — save water, save the environment, recycle, etc.
But some senior citizens are up in arms over their train tickets carrying a message that asks them whether they are aware that the common man bears the burden of 43% of their fares.
Senior citizens — those over the age of 65 — are eligible for a 43% discount. Outraged, a group of senior citizens has written to the rail ministry on the ““insulting and humiliating” message.
In an email to the railway ministry on Tuesday, the Navi Mumbai-based All India Senior Citizens’ Confederation’s (AISCCON) national president DN Chapke said senior citizens feel this way because they have been tax payers too.
AISCCON is the largest organisation of senior citizens involved in networking, advocacy and research with over one million members, according to its website. “Are you aware that 43% of your fare is borne by the common man?” reads the message on tickets . “I am a senior citizen . Recently, when I purchased a train ticket which had an applicable concession, to my dismay, I noticed [the] remark on [it]…That line has hit us,” Chapke wrote in the email.