Passenger fares raised in India's sugar-coated Rail Budget

New Delhi, Mar 14 (PTI) Sugar-coating his first budget, India's Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi today raised passenger fares in all categories in the first such step in eight years but it was met with strong opposition from his own party Trinamool Congress which demanded a rollback. The Rail Budget proposed hike in passenger fares ranging from 2 paisa per kilometre to 30 paisa per kilometre depending on the category and class of travel. Trivedi announced increase in passenger fares by 2 paise per km for suburban and ordinary Second Class, 3 paise per km for Mail/Express Second Class and 5 per paise per km for Sleeper Class, 10 paise per km for AC Chair Car, AC-3 Tier and First Class. AC-2 Tier will cost more by 15 paise per km while AC-1 will be dearer by 30 paise per km. Though the raise appears marginal, the increase will be to the tune of Rs 40 for a passenger travelling Sleeper Class in Mail/Express trains for a distance of 750 km. In his over 100-minute speech, Trivedi said these were aimed at rationalising the fares to cause "minimal impact" on the common man and "to keep the burden within tolerance limits in general". He said he had been counselled to go for a steep increase in passenger fares as there had been no increase in the last eight years but he desisted from doing so "guided by the overriding concern for aam aadmi (the common man)". Trivedi's own party immediately opposed the hike and demanded its withdrawal. Raising the banner of opposition, Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandhopadhyay was quick to demand rollback of the fare hike. "We met him (Trivedi) after the Budget and demanded a rollback .... We have given him time to withdraw the hike in fares," he said, contending that Trinamool has never put burden on the poor. The Railway Minister, however, was unfazed, saying, "Whatever I have done is in Railways' interest." He said Trinamool chief (and West Bengal Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee was not aware of Budget proposals and that "it is a misconception that Railways is being run from Writers' Building (secretariat complex of West Bengal Government in Kolkata)." Trivedi, who succeeded Banerjee in the Ministry in July last year, said the Railways was "getting into the ICU and I have pulled it out from the ICU." Trivedi said the proposed adjustments in fares "do not even cover fully the impact of increase in fuel prices during the last eight years." Railways in India is a state monopoly and is run as a department of the government with a cabinet minister at the top as its political head. Right since pre-Independence days, it has also been having a separate budget. It is the country's single largest employer. PTI Caption for pic: India's Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi presenting the Rail Budget 2012-13 in Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. PTI Photo