CHENNAI: A day after Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa slammed the rail fare hike, the opposition in the State joined the chorus demanding a rollback.
DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi said the BJP government promised to set right the “wrong precedents” of UPA government. However, its approach was no different from its predecessor’s on certain issues, including rail fare.
Even the allies of BJP in the State - the DMDK and the MDMK - insisted on a rollback of the fare revision, saying it would otherwise impose undue burden on passengers and raise inflation further. Besides, CPI State secretary D Pandian too made a similar demand.
Karunanidhi noted that the hike came close on the heels of issues like Sri Lankan Navy’s continued action against Indian fishermen, New Delhi’s ‘relationship’ with the island nation’s President Mahinda Rajapakase and hike in diesel price and noted that all had cropped up after the BJP came to power. And he castigated it its alleged indifferent attitude.
“The urgency shown in hiking passenger fare by 14.2 per cent will greatly impact the poor and middle classes,” he said.
Recalling Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s statement demanding a rollback, he said all political parties across the board were opposed to the hike.
He urged the Centre to immediately withdraw the raise in tariff “to ease the burden on common people and prevent the increase in prices of essential commodities.”
DMDK founder Vijayakant said the “wrong economic policies” of the UPA had resulted in increase in prices of fuel and essential commodities and affected people. With railway passenger fare and freight charges also being hiked in the last one year, Friday’s revision would further push the prices of essential commodities up, he said in a statement. “This will further impact the poor. Therefore I request that the fare hike be reconsidered,” he said.
MK Opposes Naidu’s palar Dam plan
Chennai: DMK president M Karunanidhi on Saturday opposed the fresh move of Andhra Pradesh to build dams across Palar river, which is the main drinking water resource for Vellore and Tiruvallur districts of Tamil Nadu. Referring to the remark made by Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu at his constituency Kuppam recently that he would construct dams across Palar river so that not even a drop of water from the river would be wasted, Karunanidhi said, “The move would not add glory to Naidu’s administerial capabilities. In the name of delivering goods to the people of his State, his move would destroy the drinking water resource of the neighbouring State.” Karunanidhi also recalled that earlier, when Chief Minister Y S Rajashekara Reddy attempted to construct dams across Palar river in 2008, Karunanidhi said Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court. Following this, the Andhra government dropped it.