The Railways Ministry has decided to halve the quota of reserved seats for unemployed youth in low-priced Yuva trains from next year, chipping away at the scheme introduced by Mamata Banerjee when she was at the helm of the Ministry.
The ministry has decided to bring down the quota due to low occupancy rate and allocate rest of the 90 per cent seats for general category, a senior ministry official said.
The revised Yuva quota will be effective from next year as it requires some time to change the reservation system, said the official.
Introduced amid much fanfare in December 2010 by Banerjee, the then Railway Minister, Yuva trains with AC Chair car facility meant for unemployed youth have failed to draw their target audience.
Following low occupancy of seats reserved for youth, railways had earlier brought down the quota from 60 per cent to 20 per cent, in March 2012.
The official said "seats reserved for unempolyed youth were remaining vacant so a decision was taken to reduce the quota."
Earlier railways has increased Duronto fares at par with Rajdhani trains. Both Duronto and Yuva trains were Mamata's pet projects.
The two Yuva trains - Nizamuddin-Bandra Terminus and New Delhi-Howrah - despite running on routes with heavy rush throughout the year, have failed to draw reasonable occupancy.
