The changes proposed in railway passenger fares, parcel and freight rates in the Railway Budget 1998-99 come into force from mid-night today. The new changes will be applicable for journey commencing on and after June 20, 1998. Those who have purchased tickets before, for journey commencing on or after June 20, 1998, will be required to pay the difference.

    The passenger fares have been increased by Re.1 to Rs.5 in Second Class (Ordinary), Rs.5 to Rs.20 in First Class (Ordinary) and Sleeper Class (Ordinary), Rs.5 to Rs.25 in Second Class (Mail/Express), Rs.10 to Rs.45 in Sleeper Class (Mail/Express), Rs.20 to Rs.60 in First Class and AC Chair Car, Rs.40 to Rs.120 in AC 3-Tier, Rs.60 to Rs.180 in AC 2-Tier and Rs.180 to Rs.540 in AC First Class. Second Class Monthly Season Ticket fare will be increased by Rs.5 to Rs.15. The all inclusive fares of Rajdhnai and Shatabdi express trains will go up by 20 percent in all classes.

    Reservation fee will go up by Rs.5 in qll classes. Supplementary charges for Superfast trains have also been increased by Rs.5 to Rs.25. The Parcel and Luggage rate will increase by 5 per cent. However, the increase in Magazine rate will be 20 per cent.

    While no general increase has been made in freight rates, classifications of certain commodities like Iron ore, Manganese ore, Ores Common NOC, Caustic Soda, Timber NOC, Rubber Crude and Soda Ash have been upgradedc by one step and those of Lime Stone, Dolomite and Gypsum reduced by one step. Coal, Cement and Iron or Steel have been accorded new classifications with minor variations from the previous rate.

    The new rate tables, printed by General Secretary, Indian Railways Conference Association (IRCA), have been circulated to all stations. Copies are also avaialble for sale in IRCA, New Delhi.
 
 

    Jawahar Rojgar Yojana(JRY) has created 69690.83 lakh mandays of employment till 1997-98. It was launched in 1989-90. The collective target was to create 69675.65 lakh mandays during this entire period . The achievement works out to 100.02% of the target. The total expenditure incurred under JRY during this period was Rs.27440.73 crore.

    In 1997-98, the Central allocation for JRY was Rs.2000 crore. The amount released to the States and Union Territories during this period totalled Rs.1941.07 crore. The total available funds with the States/Union Territories were, however, Rs.2872.03 crore which included the matching share of Rs.484.72 crore and an opening balance of Rs.446.24 crore. Against this, the expenditure reported was Rs.2242.82 crore upto March, 1998. The employment generated was 3648.30 lakh mandays against the target of 3864.90 lakh mandays.

    While creating massive employment in the rural areas, JRY has also been able to create a wide range of physical assets in sectors like forestry, mining, irrigation, soil conservation, water harvesting, land development, drinking wells, rural roads, primary school buildings, Panchayat buildings, sanitary latrines and irrigation wells. The performance of JRY is regularly monitored by the Central and State Governments. In order to facilitate proper monitoring, the Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment has laid emphasis on building a strong data base and periodical feed-back through monthly and annual progress reports.