Cadres of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) staged a protest here on Wednesday seeking a rollback of the recent rail fare. They attempted to enter the Coimbatore Railway Junction and block the trains.
However, the police prevented them. A total of 40 cadre, including 20 women, were removed. A large number of city police and railway police personnel were deployed near the railway junction. The agitators raised slogans urging the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central Government to reverse the move hiking passenger fares by 14.2 per cent across all classes and freight charges by 6.5 per cent.
In Tirupur, a total of 108 members of SFI, DYFI and AIDWA were arrested for staging a road blockade agitation and attempting to block trains. They were protesting against the passenger fare hike and increase in freight charges by the Railways. State vice-president of DYFI Nandagopal Chandrasekaran said the increases had come as a big blow to the common people who were already been burdened by the raging inflation. “The train is the cheapest public transport system and hence, been preferred most by the labourers in industrial clusters like Tirupur to commute to their native towns. In this scenario, an increase in the passenger fares by a whopping 14.2 per cent has dealt a big blow to them because their wages are not going to increase correspondingly,” he added.
K. Subramanian, district secretary of CPI (M), inaugurated the agitation.
