Commercially driven: Maya hits out at Centre over train fare hike

Lucknow: BSP national president Mayawati on Tuesday said that the central govt's decision to increase the passenger train fare is driven more by commercial concerns than the welfarist objectives of the Constitution.

She said that at a time when people in the country are badly hit by poverty, unemployment, inflation and lesser incomes, the train fare hike is not in public interest. "It will be better if the govt immediately rethinks it," she added.

The govt increasing the burden on people in their day-to-day lives in the name of ‘nation first', through railways, just like GST, is highly inappropriate, said the BSP chief.

Train travel is not a fashion, joy or tourism for crores of people who are forced to migrate because of poverty, inflation, and lack of permanent and respectable employment, and to take care of their families, she said.

She added, "The highly uncomfortable train travel is a compulsion and basic requirement for them."

The govt should be sympathetic towards them, and instead of thinking about its profit or a handful of rich and prosperous people, it should be concerned about crores of such people who are craving to live a life of self-respect. They are bound to take little benefits from govt's welfare schemes to get a stomachful of food at least one time a day, she said.

"It is because of this that 95 crore people in the country were forced to be a beneficiary under at least one of the social welfare schemes of the govt. In 2025, there were 64.3 per cent such people against 22 per cent in 2016. But, the govt is citing this data from the International Labour Organisation as its achievement," said the former UP CM.

She also said that the central and Delhi govts should also look at the exploitation and difficulties faced by the middle-class urban population and crores of poor and hardworking people on the pretext of pollution control almost every day.

Instead of acting strictly against the lifespan of vehicles to control pollution, the govt needs to act on other measures as well, so that people in the transport business are saved from further inconvenience and financial hardships, she added.

She also decried the Delhi govt's demolition drives in slums as "anti-people" and said that the govt is doing it without making any alternate arrangements for people. "The govt is saying that it is doing so on court's order, when the court has not put any ban on making alternate arrangements for people before displacing them," said Mayawati.

The shortage of electricity supply in the entire country has affected people, industrialists, and small traders alike, she added.