Trinamool takes another dig at Trivedi for fare hike

Two months after Dinesh Trivedi was removed as railway minister, his party Trinamool Congress continued to target him for hiking passenger fares and advised his successor Mukul Roy on Thursday to follow the policies of Mamata Banerjee in running the organisation.

Trivedi was removed from the railway ministry a few days after he presented the rail budget, in which he hiked passenger fares.

"Between 2009 and May 2011 under Mamata Banerjee, the Railways came up with a very time bound vision document 2020. My suggestion to the railway minister would be to stay focussed on it so that this brilliant organisation can continue to be the lifeline of the country," Derek O'Brien said during a discussion on the Appropriation (Railways) Bill, 2012.

In his speech, O'Brien took a dig at Trivedi, saying safety issues in the organisation "cannot be addressed by hiking passenger fares".

On Railways' efforts to raise Rs 1.26 lakh crore through commercial use of its land, he said, "This initiative of using and unlocking resources should not slow down or meet objections from other ministries because it will be a serious setback to the organisation."

On the slow working of Railways internet site, O'Brien said more than 50 per cent of reservations were made online but the website's slow operation was a cause of "anger and pain" for users.

He suggested that Railways have a specialist organisation, which could handle the operations of the website.

O'Brien suggested that the Railways should adopt and implement innovative methods to earn revenue and turn around the fortunes of the largest employer in the country.