BJP blames Congress on the issue of hike in railway fares

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday blamed the opposition Congress for leaving the economy into tatters which has forced the Centre to gulp the bitter pill by hiking rail fares.

While commenting on a question related to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley supporting the move to increase rail fares by the BJP led NDA Government, Abbas said, "The government has not even completed a month and the opposition must reflect on their defeat leaving aside their ego. They must realise how they have left the economy in shambles and in order to remove such things difficult steps has to be taken. Very soon you will see the results that all the difficulties that had arisen before the country will be resolved."

On being asked if there could be any possibilty of roll back on fares as raised by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Abbas added, "In a democracy everybody has a right to express their views, what can one say to it."

BJP led NDA government on Friday decided to raise passenger fares by 14.2% and freight charges by 6.5% effective June 25 which will help Indian Railways raise an additional Rs 8,000 crore in the financial year.

Post the announcement BJP had been facing criticism from the opposition and the common people for announcing the hike before the budget.

Protests have been held across the country demanding reduction in rail price.

The budget is expected to be announced in the first week of July. By tradition, the railway budget is announced two days before that.

The fare increase had been proposed by the previous government in the interim budget but was put on hold because of elections.