Siddaramaiah: 'Increase in train fares is a New Year gift from PM Modi'

Karnataka Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the recent hike in railway fare, calling it PM's "New Year gift" to common people. Siddaramaiah further said that the hike would make a "dent" in the potential development of transport services. The former CM of Karnataka suggested the government to maintain values of the Constitution as a gift to the people. 

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Siddaramaiah was referring to the ongoing agitation of people in Karnataka state and across the county against the Citizenship law. Karnataka has witnessed large-scale protests and violence in Magaluru over the contentious law. Several opposition leaders especially the Congress party is strongly opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). 

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Mangaluru protests

On December 19th, in Bunder area of Mangaluru, the protests that took place against CAA even as section 144 was imposed, took a violent turn and between 3 pm and 6 pm, the police also fired at the protestors, leading to the death of two civilians. A set of videos that have emerged from CCTV cameras in the vicinity show that a large number of stones, mortars were brought in tempos and autos by section of the protestors.

The footage also shows men with their face covered turning the CCTV cameras away, throwing stones at them and even damaging them with bamboo sticks. Scores of protestors throwing stones and even blocking the road to be taken by the police reinforcement teams have been captured on tape.

Train fares hiked

On the New Year's eve, the railways announced fare hike to be effective from January 1, 2020. With this, the railways reportedly expects to generate an additional Rs 2,300 crore annual revenue. The last such hike was announced in 2014-2015 when fares of all classes of trains were raised by 14.2 per cent and freight charges by 6.5 per cent.

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