No increase in passenger fares, says new Railways Minister

New Delhi:  Mamata Banerjee has had her way. The new Railways Minister, Mukul Roy, announced in Parliament today that there will be no fare hike in the sleeper class, AC 3-tier and AC chair car.

He, however, kept untouched the increase of 15 paise per km and 30 paise per km respectively in passenger fares in AC 2-tier and AC First Class, announced by his predecessor Dinesh Trivedi in the Railway Budget last week.

That announcement cost Mr Trivedi his job - a furious Ms Banerjee, who is the chief of Mr Trivedi's party, asked the Prime Minister to remove him, creating an unprecedented political crisis with a minister stepping down before his budget was discussed in Parliament. Mr Trivedi defied Ms Banerjee for four days, then finally resigned on Sunday night.  He was replaced by her party's Mukul Roy.  

Mr Roy described the rollback as "in the interest of the common man." Mr Trivedi had suggested an increase ranging from 2 paise per km to 30 paise per km.
With 19 Lok Sabha MPs, Mr Banerjee is a senior member of the ruling coalition but has often clashed with the government she belongs to.
Ms Banerjee had said that an increase in passenger fares would hurt the aam aadmi or common man.  The rollback greatly dents the government's image by proving that with a shaky coalition, the Prime Minister is in no position to introduce even small reforms like increasing train ticket prices.  Ms Banerjee forced the Prime Minister late last year to suspend his reforms in retail - his government wanted to allow 51% foreign direct investment or FDI in multi-brand stores which would have allowed international super-chains like Wal-Mart to sell directly to Indian consumers.

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Will try to convince Mamata about new passenger fares: Dinesh Trivedi to NDTV

New Delhi:  After Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi announced a nominal hike in train ticket fares today - the first in nine years - sources say his party chief Mamata Banerjee has told him to either resign or roll back the increased prices. Publically she has said that the hike is not acceptable.

The railway minister said, "I have done my duty... now I leave it to God." Referring to the precarious financial health of the railways, he said, "The railways was getting into the ICU and I have pulled it out of ICU. You cannot have everything together." The fares are nominal - two paise per km for the cheapest tickets and 30 paise per kilometre for the more expensive ones.

This was my Budget, not Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's, not Mamata Banerjee's, said Mr Trivedi, hours after being publically reprimanded by his party for hiking fares. The Railway minister held that he was "very happy with my budget...MPs across party lines have congratulated me. The general feeling is it is a very good budget. I have done my duty to the best of my ability." He said the country came first, he had taken a conscious decision and that "I have no clue" why his party was hitting out at his budget, for he had been "too busy" with his budget. He also said that he would resign if he was asked to by his leader, who he said  he had not consulted on his budget, but insisted he would stand by good economics versus politics.

The final Triamool word comes from Nandigram in West Bengal, where Mamata Banerjee said, "I assure you that we will not accept this fare hike." Mr Trivedi said he would try to convince Ms Banerjee.

Immediately after Mr Trivedi presented his first rail budget, his party colleagues attacked him. First, the Trinamool's Rajya Sabha MP Derek O Brien, tweeted, "Railway Budget... what was all that about increasing fares across the board? Upper class... maybe ok... but all? Sorry, cannot agree." Then, fellow TMC minister Sudip Bandopadhyay demanded that the hike be withdrawn. "We are opposing because of our party leader Mamata Banerjee who has taught us to protect interests of poor people. We have told Dinesh Trivedi to withdraw the hike. The party has not discussed anything with minister on the railway budget," he said.

Ms Banerjee's diktat today causes huge embarrassment not just for Mr Trivedi, but for the UPA as well, where her party is a senior member. The Prime Minister praised Mr Trivedi's Railways budget, describing it as "forward-looking with emphasis on safety and modernisation." First reactions from passengers all over the country have been largely the same: that the fare hike is too nominal to really hurt passengers; they all said they would readily pay a little more for a safer journey. (Rail Budget: Passenger fares hiked after eight years; focus on safety, fiscal prudence) But with her 19 Lok Sabha MPs, Ms Banerjee has the power to topple the government. So no demand is dismissed out of hand. Referring to reports of her differences with the Railways Minister, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said this was "an internal TMC matter" and said issues like a potential rollback of fares would have to be "looked into."

"If you roll back the fares, you have to roll back safety too," countered the Railways Minister. His party chief's opposition was ideological, he said, making a point of the fact that "it is wrong to think that the railways ministry is run from Writer's Building (the seat of the West Bengal government in Kolkata)." The minister also said a difference of opinion did not mean a falling apart.

But sources say Ms Banerjee has been upset with Mr Trivedi for a while now, possibly because of his perceived closeness to the Congress. They say that Mr Trivedi meeting Rahul Gandhi recently did not wash well with Ms Banerjee, though Mr Trivedi had said it was to discuss some railway related matter. The, last week, Mr Trivedi said that his party may not be opposed to early general elections - Ms Banerjee later said that her MPs had been asked not to express their personal views.

As Dinesh Trivedi braves it out in political isolation, there is also a theory doing the rounds that Ms Banerjee and her minister could be playing good cop, bad cop. That the entire drama will play out to a denouement where Mr Trivedi will eventually roll back the fare hike and Ms Banerjee will be the political hero. For now, Mr Trivedi is resolute that there shall be no roll back.   

Sitaram Yechury of the Left says Ms Banerjee's stand today is duplicitous. "The Rail Budget is cleared by the government of which Dinesh is a part then they (TMC) go and protest," he said.

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