People love to travel and meet their near and dear ones during festival season due to holidays, leading to heavy rush in all Indian Railways trains running across the length and breadth of the country. If you have failed to get your reservation confirmed or have missed to get tickets or worried over high prices of tickets, Indian Railways is ready to facilitate you by providing even "free" services during Diwali. The offer can be availed by those who come under the criteria decided by the national transporter. 
 
Under the new offer, Indian Railways has prepared a list to provide concessions along with certain conditions. If you fall under the scheduled category, you can avail concession from 25% to 100%. 
 
The Indian Railways has divided the concession list into two categories. In one of the categories, people can travel without paying any charges while in the other category, concession from 25% to 75% can be availed. Cancer patients can travel free and his/her assistant will also get a free ticket. This offer is available in the sleeper and AC3 category, while in AC1, AC2 and AC chair car such passengers can avail 75% concession.
 
INDIAN RAILWAYS: GENERAL RULES FOR CONCESSION 
 
The detailed rules, procedures, entitlement, purposes, etc for grant of concession are contained under different serial numbers in IRCA Coaching Tariff, Part I (Vol. II) which can be purchased from the General Secretary, I.R.C.A., Chelmsford Road, New Delhi. For any complaints or clarifications, the General Manager or the Chief Commercial Superintendent of the concerned Zonal Railway Administration should be approached. The important general rules for concession, in reference to the above mentioned Tariff, are as under: 
 
(a)All concessional fares shall be calculated on the basis of fares for Mail/Express trains irrespective of the type of train, i.e. Mail or Express or Passenger, by which the passenger travels. 
 
(b) Concession shall not be granted for any journey the cost of which is borne by the Central or State Government or a local authority or a Statutory body or a Corporation or a Government Undertaking or a University.
 
However, the students participating in the tournaments held or recognized by the schools or universities will be eligible to the concession. 
 
(c) Concession shall be admissible only in respect of basic fares. No concession is admissible in respect of other charges, viz. super fast surcharge, reservation fee, etc. However, in cases where concession has been allowed in Rajdhani/Shatabdi/Jan Shatabdi trains, the concession shall be admissible in the total charges (including catering) of these trains.
 
Ministry of Railways have decided that “concession wherever admissible and child fare in the case of rajdhani/shatabdi/jan shatabdi/duronto express trains may be granted only in the basic fare like other mail/express trains and all other charges (catering charges, reservation charges, supplementary charges like superfast surcharge, enhanced reservation charges, taxes (if any) shall be collected in full”.
 
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http://www.indianrail.gov.in/conc_Rules.html#GENERAL_RULES