Railway Ministers, deputies used special saloons 165 times in five years

New Delhi: Railway Ministers and their deputies availed the facility of special saloons every 10th day on an average, with 165 journeys made in the last five years.

The response from the Railways to activist Subhash Agrawal's RTI query shows Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha has taken the highest number of train journeys, totalling 40, during the period in the comfortable saloon specially made for the ministers.

He is followed by former Railway Minister 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.

K H 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, Souther Railway, South Eastern Railway and South East Central Railway.

No information is available from these zones, the ministry has said.

Most of the ministers have used these saloons to travel to either their home states or from where they have won their elections.