The new cards for employees, dependents and retired employees will replace the medical booklet cards that have been in use for ages.
Indian Railways has now decided to provide plastic medical cards to its 13 lakh employees and their dependents. These will replace the age old medical booklet cards, which resemble ration cards, and will have a unique pan-India number.
The dependents of the employees and retired railway employees will also be assigned plastic cards with a unique pan-India number.
To identify the category of card holder, the cards will have strips of different colours. For instance, the employees, the pensioners and the dependents will have three different coloured strips on their respective cards.
The cards for beneficiaries up to the age of 15 years will be issued with a validity of five years, after which they will need to be renewed. On the other hand, the beneficiaries above the age of 15 will be issued cards which will need to be renewed once they turn 40, and later when they retire.
The Indian Railways Board has issued an order: “For bringing uniformity in the medical identity cards issued to employees and other beneficiaries of Indian Railways, the board has approved that the card should be a plastic-based card, the size of which should be same as that of debit/credit cards issued by banks.”