"It is anti-people totally. When Government cannot control the price, it is taking steps to further inflate the prices of essential commodities," CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told reporters here.
The government had already increased the prices of diesel, cooking gas, power and now the rail fare-hike, he said.
"It is a government which cannot perform.....", he said adding the CPI would demand reduction in the fare hike.
Ahead of the Budget, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today effected an across-the-board hike in fares of all classes from midnight of January 21 to net an additional Rs 6,600 crore a year, the first such increase in a decade.