After selling 5 lakh passes in 4 days, Railways roll back hike

While the rest of us have been wondering where the monsoons have gone, it’s been raining big bucks for the railways.

Between June 21, when passengers started lining up for season passes after the astronomical hike in their cost was announced the previous day, and last evening, when most of it was rolled back, the Central and Western railways earned Rs 30 crore through the sale of passes alone. That’s nearly Rs 7.5 crore a day — a figure that will almost certainly go up when the final count from yesterday comes in.

The Central Railway has earned Rs 11.60 crore between June 21 and 23, or nearly Rs 4 crore a day, through the sale of season passes.

Compare it to the usual daily average of Rs 85 lakh and you realise how much of a difference the fare hike announcement made..

Source: Hindi News

Gowda flays rail fare hike, questions government's hurry

"In spite of the present Prime Minister fighting Lok Sabha elections on major issues including price rise, the Railway Minister has gone ahead with the announcement of increasing passenger fare hike, which will have many implications," Gowda told reporters here.

Stating that there was no need to make the announcement about the hike before the Budget Session of Parliament which would commence from July 7, Gowda said, "Within 15 days, heavens would not have fallen."

 

It was also unnecessary on the part of the Railway Minister to put the onus on the previous UPA government for taking the decision on the hike. He said the issue of hike and the need for more funds for Railways could have been discussed in the Parliament.

  

Commenting on the controversy over Hindi in the wake of two circulars issued by the Union Home Ministry to promote its use in the social media, he blamed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for "raking" up an old emotive issue and diverting people's attention from burning problems.

Source: Latest News