EconomyRailways
Cabinet clears 78-day bonus for 11.4 lakh railway staff, renames pension schemes
The productivity-linked bonus will cost ₹2,009.61 crore. Loco pilots, guards, station masters and track maintainers can get up to ₹17,951 each.
Key points
- The Union Cabinet approved a bonus equal to 78 days' wages for non-gazetted railway staff.
- About 11.41 lakh employees will receive it, at a total cost of ₹2,009.61 crore.
- The Cabinet also extended and renamed the National Social Assistance Programme with ₹53,428 crore to 2030-31.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a productivity-linked bonus equal to 78 days’ wages for non-gazetted railway employees, a payment made every year before the Durga Puja and Dussehra holidays.
The bonus will go to 11,40,770 employees and will cost the government ₹2,009.61 crore. The maximum an eligible employee can receive is ₹17,951.
Who gets it
The payment covers track maintainers, loco pilots, train managers (guards), station masters, supervisors, technicians and their helpers, pointsmen, ministerial staff and other Group C employees.
The government said the bonus recognises the railways’ performance in 2025-26 and is meant to “incentivise employees to improve the performance of Indian Railways.”
Along with the decision, the government pointed to the railways’ numbers for 2025-26, when the network carried a record 1,670 million tonnes of freight and close to 741 crore passengers.
Social assistance scheme extended and renamed
The Cabinet also approved the continuation of the National Social Assistance Programme for five years, from 2026-27 to 2030-31, with an outlay of ₹53,428 crore. The programme, which pays pensions to about 3.2 crore poor elderly people, widows and people with disabilities across all states and Union Territories, will be renamed the Pradhan Mantri Samajik Sahayata Yojana.
Its pension schemes, which carry Indira Gandhi’s name, will also be renamed: the old age, widow and disability pensions become the Pradhan Mantri Vridhavastha, Vidhawa and Divyangjan Pension Yojanas.
The disability pension will be opened to more people. “The eligibility threshold for benchmark disability will be reduced to 40 per cent from 80 per cent at present,” the government said, and it will be available from birth. New guidelines are to be issued within three months.