40 lakh senior citizens gave up railway concession: Modi

Over 40 lakh senior citizens have voluntarily given up the concession in reservation of railway tickets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.

He said all this was achieved only by giving an option to the senior citizens in the reservation form to forego this subsidy.

"In India, there is a railway ticket concession for the senior citizens. I told officers to give an option to them to forego the concession in the reservation form if they wish to," Modi said at the 'Bharat Ki Baat, Sabke Saath' diaspora event in London.

He said that neither did he make it mandatory nor did he make any appeal to the public to let go of the concession.

"And yet, till now, over 40 lakh senior citizens traveling in air conditioned coaches have voluntarily given up the subsidy.

"Had I made a law to enforce this, there would have been wide protests," he said.

The Prime Minister said that earlier he had made an appeal to the public to give up the LPG subsidy if they could afford it.

"So far, 1.25 crore families have gave up the gas subsidy," he said.

"There is no dearth of honest people in the county. It is our work to understand the potential of our people."

--IANS

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