Sixty-five-year-old Syamsundar Ghosh, who takes an early morning train from Kalyani to work as a salesman at a saree shop in Kolkata, is an angry man these days. The reason is simple, he voted for the BJP. Mr. Ghosh regrets his decision now and he does not want to hide it either.
“The first ‘pro-people’ thing that they did was to increase the train fares. As I went to renew my monthly ticket, I was told it has doubled. I regret that I voted for Mr. Modi,” the sexagenarian said, at one of the busiest railways stations of Asia, Sealdah. The railways has doubled the monthly fares and increased freight charges by 14.2 per cent, which will burden the ordinary citizens, and Mr. Ghosh, being one of them, is seriously upset.
Daily passengers like Mr. Ghosh, travelling in Sealdah-Kalyani route will have to pay nearly Rs. 350 from Rs. 170. So there was a rush at the railway stations to buy three-month advance ‘monthly-fare tickets’ throughout the last week. The daily passengers’ unions have protested the hike. “The fare could have been increased slowly over the months or the years, but nearly doubling of fares is atrocious,” said Tarapada Roy from Khardah. At many places, daily passengers say the trains are not running on time and the deteriorating condition of the train compartments increases the trauma of travel in local trains. “Very few fans work, trains do not run on time, lax security, and even then the fares doubled,” said Arup Raha, another regular commuter. Mr. Raha feels the passengers from economically weaker section will refuse to buy tickets and thus the department will ‘lose more in coming months and be forced to reduce fares shortly’.
The others, however, could identify different reasons for the fare increase. “There are no major elections coming up anytime soon and the move of the party is justified,” said Timir Dandapat, a BJP sympathiser.
