Railway Minister has assured about train availability for pilgrimage scheme for elderly, says Manish Sisodia
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia met Railways Minister Piyush Goyal Thursday and said that he has been assured that trains will be made available very soon for the Delhi government's 'Mukhyamantri Tirath Yatra Yojana'.
The scheme, under which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government sends senior citizens on pilgrimage, has been temporarily suspended due to non-availability of trains. The Northern Railways had said on Wednesday that the unavailability of rakes was due to the effect of fog on train operations and movement of paramilitary personnel on election duty to and from Karnataka and Jharkhand, and from border areas.
"Met Railways Minister Piyush Goyal over Mukhyamantri Tirath Yatra. He has assured me of providing trains for the yatra very soon," Sisodia told reporters after the meeting. The Deputy chief minister said the Delhi government expected to get more trains to enable pilgrimage of 30,000 senior citizen, whose rail reservation were made under the scheme.
Under the scheme launched in July this year, out of 63,435 senior citizen who applied for pilgrimage, 32,828 have been to one of the 12 religious destinations in the country. The rest are yet to go on pilgrimage.
According to the schedule planned by the Delhi government and Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), 30 trips were pending between December 10, 2019 and January 28, 2020. The pending trips include 12 to Rameshwaram and six to Dwarkadhish.
