Over nine lakh senior citizens have voluntarily given up their ticket subsidies under the 'give up' scheme of the Railways, thereby helping the transport behemoth save around Rs 40 crore. This year, a new option was added in which a senior citizen can give up 50 per cent of the subsidy. The scheme was launched to reduce the nearly Rs 1,300 crore subsidy burden of the Railways in the senior citizen category. From July 22 to October 22, 2.16 lakh men and 2.67 lakh women gave up their full subsidy, while 2.51 lakh men and 2.05 lakh women decided not to avail 50 per cent of their subsidy - making the total number of passengers over 60 years to give up their subsidy at 9.39 lakh in three months. During the same period last year, only about 4.68 lakh senior citizens gave up their subsidies - 2.35 lakh men and 2.33 lakh women.

Source: Economic Times December 03, 2017 06:00 UTC