Railway employees and pensioners will soon have credit-card type medical cards, that will replace the existing ration-book style booklets, with a unique employee number.
These cards will replace the medical booklets issued by the zonal railways. The new medical identity card, with unique employee number, will be issued to the employees, each dependent, and p-ensioners.
Each card will have a coloured strip on the top indicating the category of the card-holder — serving, retired employees or dependents.
The proposal has been approved by the railway board
The cards for beneficiaries up to the age of 15 years will be issued with a validity of five years, after which they will have to be renewed.
The cards also have to be reneed once the cardholders reach 40 years of age and once again when they retire. The Indian Railways has 1.3 million employees and around the same number of pensioners and all their dependents, who are eligible to use the medical card.