'Aadhaar not mandatory to book rail tickets'

Aadhaar number is not mandatory for booking rail tickets, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday. Union Minister of State for Railways, Rajen Gohain said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha, that as of now, his ministry had no plans to make the 12-digit unique identification number compulsory for booking rail tickets.

"At present, there is no proposal to make the Aadhaar number compulsory for booking tickets for rail journey. However, with effect from January 1, 2017, the requirement of Aadhaar verification for getting concessional railway tickets for senior citizens has been introduced on a voluntary basis," he said.

Over the last few months, the Aadhaar number has been made mandatory for a range of services and schemes — for bank accounts, to file taxes, for tuberculosis patients to avail treatment under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), to avail the benefits under the Maternity Benefit Programme and Integrated Child Protection Scheme and many other schemes.