Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had complained that she was not informed before the hike in the freight rates by the then railway minister Dinesh Trivedi, otherwise she would have not allowed it. Ms Banerjee’s hand-picked Mukul Roy, who has succeeded Mr Trivedi as the railway minister, however, has no plans to roll back the increased freight rates.
On being asked whether he would consider to roll back the increased freight rates like he did for the passenger fares up to AC-3-tier, Mr Roy replied: “It was not mentioned in the Railway Budget.”
His version clearly suggests that there would be no roll back in the freight rates which were increased from 19 per cent to 33 per cent on the eve of the Railway Budget.
Mr Roy also announced that the Railways had its “Golden Age” when Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister. On being asked what would he focus upon as the railway minister, he said: “My focus is to ensure safety, security and punctuality. I will also try to bring down the operating ratio of the Railways.”
Mr Roy on Monday chaired a meeting with the officials of the Eastern Railway, South Eastern Railway and Kolkata Metro Railway at the Eastern Railway headquarters in Kolkata. During the meeting, he was informed about the different ongoing projects of the Railways in the state.