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Delhi govt’s CM pilgrimage scheme for elderly temporarily suspended
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
The Delhi government on Wednesday temporarily suspended its pilgrimage scheme for elderly citizens, with deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia saying the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) cancelled scheduled trips December 10 onwards.
“The IRCTC have informed us on Tuesday they have to cancel trains of the Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojana due to non-availability of rakes. We will discuss the issue with IRCTC and the Railway Minister and try to resolve it at the earliest,” said Sisodia.
He said, “We had signed a memorandum of understanding with IRCTC. We hope this unexpected difficulty will be resolved soon . For now, we have to temporarily suspend the scheme.”
Sisodia said the scheme was on since July and was doing well with the Railways’ cooperation. As many as 30 trains were to ferry pilgrims between December 10 and January 28, 2020, under the scheme. The destinations include Rameshwaram, Dwarkadhish and Tirupati. So far, the scheme has covered around 33,000 pilgrims since its launch around four months ago.
Meanwhile, the government will try drafting a schedule for additional short-distance pilgrimage trips, which do not require train travel, the deputy chief minister said.
Later in the day, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “The elders were happy with the pilgrimage. I will get it started again after talking to the central government. It may take some time.”
The scheme is aimed at enabling senior citizens from Delhi to undertake free pilgrimage trips, for which all expenses related to travel, food and accommodation are borne by the Delhi government.
In a statement, the Northern Railways said, “The operation of Mukhya Mantri Tirth Yatra Special trains scheduled from December 10 onwards stands cancelled for now due to the non-availability of rakes because of the following reasons -- foggy weather conditions prevailing in North India adversely affected train operations and punctuality. In order to ensure the punctual running of trains, extra rakes are being utilised to run scheduled trains.”
It said, “The assembly elections in Jharkhand are also underway. The rakes are being utilised for the movement of Central Paramilitary forces from various parts of the country to Jharkhand to ensure conduct of safe and secure elections. In addition, a number of rakes are being utilized for de-induction of the forces from Karnataka after the by-election. Rakes are also being utilised for the annual changeover of troops of BSF from Eastern frontier to Western frontier and vice-versa.”
POLITICS OVER PILGRIMAGE
The development snowballed into a tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
AAP leader Gopal Rai blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for the cancellations and said, “It’s clear the BJP is badly troubled by the fear of defeat (in the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi)”.
The BJP dismissed the claims and hit back at AAP, calling them “immatured in politics”.
“The AAP is immatured in politics. They have no idea on what factors can lead to shortage of train racks. They are politicising the matter because they do not have anything substantial to offer the people of Delhi where elections are likely to happen soon,” said Neelkant Bakshi, media coordinator of the BJP’s Delhi unit.
