A section of the media have reported that Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi has resigned following criticism from his own party members including Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee over hiking of train fares, but Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that PM has not received his resignation letter. Trivedi is in parliament to participate in the question hour on Friday.
Trivedi presented a bold Railway Budget on Wednesday, hiking passenger fares across all classes ranging from two paisa to 30 paise per km, which is the first hike in 10 years.
TMC said in Parliament that the party has not asked Trivedi to step down.
Meanwhile, Mamata wrote to the Prime Minister on Wednesday to sack Trivedi and replace him with Rajya Sabha MP and Minister of State for Shipping, Mukul Roy. Sources said that the PM has accepted Mamata's demand and Mukul Roy's swearing in as the Railway Minister is expected to take place after the presentation of the general budget.
The TMC members openly criticized Trivedi soon after the Railway Budget was presented on Wednesday. They demanded immediate rollback of the fare hike but he refused. He justified his decision to mop up additional revenue of Rs 4,000 crore to spend on railway safety.
