Chandigarh, March 10:- Under the Haryana Chief Minister's Pilgrimage Scheme, eligible senior pilgrims of the state will now be given darshan of various pilgrimage places by train. For this, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Haryana Government and IRCTC. The MoU was signed by the Director General of Information, Public Relations and Languages ??Department, Shri K. Makrand Pandurang from the government and the Circle Regional Manager, Shri Harjot Singh Sandhu from IRCTC.
Director General Shri K. Makrand Pandurang said that the Haryana Government has started the Haryana Chief Minister's Pilgrimage Scheme to provide free travel to various pilgrimage places to eligible senior pilgrims of the state. Under this, thousands of eligible elderly people have been taken to various pilgrimage sites including Ayodhya free of cost by Volvo buses of Haryana Transport Department from different districts.
On the orders of Chief Minister Shri Naib Singh Saini, a plan has been made to take pilgrims to pilgrimage sites by train. Under this, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Haryana Government and IRCTC. On this occasion, Shri Harsh Deep and Shri Nitin Sharma from Railways and Shri Ranbir Singh Sangwan, Additional Director of Information, Public Relations and Language Department, along with other officials were also present.

The agreement to take them to these holy sites was signed by Shri K. Makrand Pandurang said that under the agreement with IRCTC, an agreement has been reached to organize pilgrimages to Ayodhya, Varanasi, Patna Sahib, Nanded Sahib, Pushkar Ji, Vaishno Devi and Shirdi and Shani Shingnapur pilgrimage sites from Haryana. More pilgrimage sites can also be added as per the requirement.

Free food and lodging arrangements
He said that there will be 11 coaches in a train. Out of these, 10 coaches will be for pilgrims and one coach will be for serving staff. During the journey, food and lodging arrangements for the pilgrims, arrangement of buses to transport the pilgrims from the nearby Reval station to the pilgrimage site and lodging arrangements will also be made free of cost by the Haryana government.

What is the Pilgrimage Scheme? 
Under the Haryana Chief Minister's Pilgrimage Scheme, senior citizens of Haryana above 60 years of age, whose income is less than Rs 1.80 lakh, are provided free pilgrimage to holy places. To avail the benefits of the scheme, eligible persons register for pilgrimage on the official portal.