5 months ago
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The Congress connected Monday (December 22, 2025) demanded the resignation of Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, accusing the authorities of distracting taxpayers with irrelevant issues, to hike bid fares connected the sly, astatine a clip erstwhile the information of the nationalist bearer has deteriorated.
The Congress flagged that bid fares had been raised doubly since June 2024 erstwhile the Narendra Modi authorities came to powerfulness for the 3rd time. Addressing a property league astatine the Indira Bhawan office of the party, Congress person Ajoy Kumar said Mr. Vaishnaw had smartly accrued the fare by 1 paisa oregon 2 paise per km, but it burdend the communal nationalist “by ₹100-₹200”.
He asserted that the Railways are the “backbone of India’s economy”, not a means to “make profit”. Mr. Kumar called Mr. Vaishnaw a “reel minister”, not a “rail minister”, accusing him of focusing connected integer contented arsenic opposed to the halfway issues of the Railways.
The Railway Ministry connected Sunday announced a hike successful summons prices by 1 paise per km for question successful mean people beyond 215 km, and 2 paise per km for non-AC classes of mail/express trains and AC classes of each trains. The caller rates volition beryllium effectual from December 26, 2025. The authorities has said the summation successful fares volition fetch ₹600 crore to the Railways till March 31, 2026.
The bid fares, Mr. Kumar said, had been accrued successful the past decennary by the Modi authorities by up to 107%. He besides demanded that Kavach — India’s Automatic Train Protection (ATP) strategy that prevents bid collision — should beryllium instantly implemented successful each trains, saying that the “bullet bid tin hold but not safety”. Kavach is lone disposable successful 3% of trains, helium pointed out.
“We impulse Ashwini Vaishnaw to resign, due to the fact that the information of the Railways has deteriorated nether him and owed to his benignant of functioning. He should perceive to his interior conscience,” Mr. Kumar said. ‘Reel minister’ Ashwini Vaishnaw should resign, helium reiterated. The Congress person claimed that the CAG study had stated that the nutrient served connected trains was not acceptable for quality consumption.
