Finance minister P Chidambaram on Thursday defended the government?s decision to hike rail passenger fares saying it was a ?sound economic decision? taken after considering the financial health of the entity. Chidambaram also said there was no proposal before the Cabinet to hike diesel prices at the moment.
Replying to a query by the Opposition and its demand for an immediate rollback of the passenger fare hike, Chidambaram told reporters, ?I think these are sound economic decisions… Railway fares have not been hiked for the last 10 years. The last time railway fares were hiked was by the NDA government, when Nitish Kumar was the railway minister.?
He said one should not politicise such decisions, adding that railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had explained to reporters on Wednesday why increasing passenger fares was unavoidable, given the state of health of the finances of Indian Railways.
?I think it is a fair game for the Opposition to oppose the fare hike for the sake of opposition… Economic decisions are taken by a political government, but they do not cease to be economic decisions,? he said, adding that there was no need to make it controversial.
