CM urges Railway Min to reduce fare in Azimganj-Katwa section

Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday wrote to Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw urging him to lower the fare in the Azimganj- Katwa section of Murshidabad district.

Banerjee stated in her letter that the railway fare in the Katwa-Azimganj section in the Howrah division of Eastern Railway was increased from Rs 10 to Rs 30 during the pandemic period and the same is continuing, as pointed out to her by the President of Eastern Railways Passenger Association.

She requested the Railway minister to revert to the old railway fare of Rs 10 considering the poor people who travel daily for their work in this section.

“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the population of Murshidabad district and its surroundings are very poor. They can hardly afford tickets at higher rates, since most of them are daily wage earners belonging to BPL category and they need to travel from their home to their place of work everyday,”

Banerjee wrote.

She further pointed out that in para 63 of the year 2009-10 Railway Budget that was presented by her as Railway minister, she had drawn the attention of the House to the provision of concession to the very poor people.

The relevant portion of para 63 appended along with her letter reads: "...every person wants to live with dignity. Rail journey is also like the journey of life. I want that every person should travel on our Railways with dignity. I, therefore wish to present the gift of travel with dignity to even the poorest of the poor. I, therefore, announce a new scheme “Izzat”. Under this scheme, a uniformly priced monthly season ticket of Rs 25 would be available free of all surcharges for travel upto 100 km for members of the unorganised sector with monthly income not exceeding Rs 1500. This will give lakhs of people in the country a chance to travel on rail with dignity. This scheme will be implemented with the co-operation of the Members of the Parliament.”

She pointed out that the scheme that has been withdrawn has adversely affected the poorer section of society. “It is very unfortunate that the Passengers Association who represents the poor passengers of that section had preferred many appeals to the Eastern Railway Authorities on various occasions but it seems that no action has so far been taken to give relief to the poor people of the area,” Banerjee wrote.