Cutting across political loyalties and affiliations, several leaders on Friday criticized the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and his NDA Government for hiking railway passenger fares and freight rates.
Former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said the railway fare hike was definitely not the beginning of good days for the country.
"They should have proposed this in the railway budget. This is wrong, and this is definitely not the beginning of good days," said Kumar.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat said that this showed the hypocritical nature of the present government.
"We strongly condemn this, and this shows the hypocrisy of the government, this will be a huge burden on the people. We demand its reversal," said Karat.
Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal said the people should get prepared to carry the burden of the new government.
More From This Section
"The good days are yet to come. Why did they hike the prices before presenting the budget? I think there will be huge tax impositions, and the people should be ready to carry the burden," said Agarwal.
"The government is failing to control inflation," he added.
The centre has reportedly announced a steep hike in railway passenger and freight fares with effect from today.
Passenger fares have been increased by 14.2 percent, while freight charges have been increased by 6.5 percent respectively.