Chhattisgarh Congress MLA on Sunday boycotted the flag of ceremony of the Vande Bharat Express train at various stations in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a Vande Bharat Express service for Chhattisgarh from Nagpur to Bilaspur and back.
Congress MLA and Railway Board member Vikas Upadhyay said: “We have no objection to the start of the Vande Bharat train. It seems it is not for the general public but for special people.
“The objection is on the way its fare has been fixed due to which we decided not to register our presence at today's event,” he said.
The Central government has halted the services of various local and other trains running through the route, causing inconvenience to people. The Vande Bharat will only put an additional burden of 40 percent higher fare on the common man’s pocket, he added.
As per Railway’s programme schedule, as the train enters the state's border, Congress MLAs were invited to show green flags at various stations.
MLA Vikas Upadhyay was to do so at Saraswati Nagar in Raipur and senior MLAs Satyanarayan Sharma and Kuldeep Juneja were to do to so at the railway station in Bilaspur.
In a letter sent to the Railway Ministry, Upadhyay called for revising the hike in the fare to provide an opportunity to more people to utilize the train service.
