New Delhi cancels plan to increase rail fares

The Indian government on Thursday scrapped plans to hike most rail fares, underscoring the Congress-led coalition’s growing difficulties in implementing tough policy decisions. “I intend to give relief to the already burdened common man,” the new Railway Minister, Mukul Roy, told parliament after his predecessor Dinesh Trivedi resigned on Sunday over the controversial issue. Roy told a noisy parliament that the rail fare rises would not be implemented except in the highest class of travel used by wealthier Indians. He said the fare hike in the lower rail classes was “a huge drain on the pocket of the masses.” In practice, the proposed nationwide hikes would have included the 1,400-kilometre Mumbai-Delhi fare rising by only Rs28 for bottom-rung second-class customers. Roy scrapped Trivedi’s proposal to expand the Railway Board. Trivedi had announced the increases in rail fares, a touchstone issue among millions of Indians, only last week but the proposed rises triggered fury from his populist Trinamool Congress party, which is part of the ruling coalition.