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Journalism of Courage
Trivedis Railway plan shows courage its a disgrace that his party wants him fired for that
Such Railway budgets happen rarely. Once in 10 years,literally. For Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress,to muster courage and hike aam admi fares by up to 20 per cent,must have been a leap of faith. Because in India,general class passengers account for 95 per cent of total traffic. The balance 5 per cent is made up by those travelling in air conditioned coaches. The expert group for modernisation of Railways chaired by the prime ministers adviser Sam Pitroda had recommended a one-time 25 per cent increase in fares to raise Rs 37,500 crore. Trivedi did not exactly do that but with an across-the-board passenger fare hike and a modest 5 per cent growth in traffic,the Railways projected earnings to go up by about Rs 7,000 crore in next year,25 per cent more than the expected earnings in 2011-12.
It does not require an economic genius to do all this,but definitely strong political will. Ideally,it would have made sense to spread the hike in fares over a period of time,especially for the bottom segment of passenger traffic. A modicum of increase every year since 2002-03 would have meant nothing to the aam admi. By effecting a sharp hike in one year,he provoked his party,rubbing it in with needless references to Bhagat Singh,God and the country. The capricious Mamata Banerjee has asked for his head it will be a shame if she gets get it along with a rollback.
