Railway Minister’s saloons used 165 times in five years

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Manoj Sinha, Kharge among most frequent travellers on special coach

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 21: 

Railway Ministers and their deputies have availed the facility of special saloons every tenth day on a average, with 165 journeys being made in the last five years.

The response from the Railways to activist Subhash Agrawal’s RTI query shows former Minister of State for Railways (and now Telecom Minister) Manoj Sinha as having taken 40 trips in the saloon, the highest for any minister.

He is followed by former Railway Minister (currently leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha) Mallikarjun Kharge, who travelled 31 times, while current Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has travelled 25 times in the special bogey which is attached to trains when they travel.

KH Muniyappa, former Minister of State for Railways, used the saloon 18 times in the last five years. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who was the Minister of State for Railways between 2012 and 2014 used the service for 20 times, mostly to travel to West Bengal. About 65 times special trains were used to attach the saloons.

The data provided by the Railway Ministry does not include any details from five zonal railways — Northeast Frontier Railway, North Western Railway, Southern Railway, South Eastern Railway and South East Central Railway.