The Trinamool Congress on Friday staged a boycott in the Rajya Sabha during a reply to the Rail Budget to protest against the Centre not conceding its demand for railway network for Maoist-affected Jangalmahal area of West Bengal.
Surprised over their reaction, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal asserted that he did not discriminate against any State. But he was defensive about Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli getting preferable treatment in Railway Budget. He wondered whether Rae Bareli is not part of India. Immediately he was reminded by AIADMK member V Maitreyan that it appears that Tamil Nadu does not exist in India and another MP made similar remark about Kerala.
Bansal defended the pre-budget hike in fare on the ground that it was done after 12 years to meet the resource crunch faced by Railways. He said that hike in reservation and cancellation charges was done to deter touts who were taking advantage of the system to black the tickets at a premium, but assured that no further hike in these charges will be done in near future. He said that the Rail Tariff Authority proposal is currently at the inter-ministerial discussion stage and a cabinet note will be prepared after consensus.
About freight rate hike of 5.7 per cent, he said it was done as per the Fuel Adjustment Component (FAC) as there was a combined impact of hike in fuel prices and electricity tariff. Butt now the cross subsidy from freight to passenger service has increased to `25,000, he pointed out and wondered if the cross subsidisation was “logically justified”.
Noting several areas are still not connected by Railway, he said the untouched areas are being brought on the rail map. A majority of these projects are in North Eastern states, besides in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
He said that eight more Railway Protection Force (RPF) companies of women from the four at present.
Each company would have around 100 personnel. The process of recruitment of 1.52 lakh staff in various categories will be completed this fiscal.