Rail fare hike: Kejriwal lashes out at Centre in letter to Modi

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today lashed out at the Centre for rising inflation and increasing rail fare and demanded immediate withdrawal of the rail hike. The party also wanted the central government to reconsider the decision of a possible hike in gas prices. [caption id=“attachment_1588719” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Arvind Kejriwal. PTI[/caption] “Before the elections you (Narendra Modi) had promised the people of the country that after coming to power you will bring down the prices and reduce corruption. However, during the past one month, instead of reducing prices and taking steps to curb corruption, prices of many essential commodities have been increased leading to public outrage.” “It is being seen that your government is resorting to increasing prices without eradicating corruption and this will not solve any problem. The extra money generated from such hikes is pilferaged,” AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that instead of hiking the rail fare to provide better facilities, the government should have taken steps to curb corruption in the system. “The government logic is that to provide better facilities, fares have been hiked. But how can we accept this argument? Every government gives this faulty logic to justify the price hike. However, it’s been seen that despite regular fare hikes, facilities in railways have only deteriorated. “It would have been better had your government deferred the railway fare hike for a year or six months atleast, and instead should have taken some strong measures to curb corruption in railways,” the letter stated. The former Delhi Chief Minister also slammed the government’s proposed move to increase gas price and alleged that such a move would only benefit Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance. “We had apprehended earlier only that after the elections the prices of natural gas will be doubled. We sincerely request you not to hike gas prices which will only benefit Mukesh Ambani and the people will be further burdened by rising prices,” the letter added. PTI