Protest against increased railway Freight Charges

Ministry of Railways, keeping the whole country and the Parliament completely in dark increased freight charges on many essential items as well as industrial commodities that would further soar inflation and severe price rise. The order circular (no.TCR/1078/2010/21) issued on 20^th December will be effective from December, 27. Joint Director of the Railway Board Ashok Mehrotra has issued the order.

As a great betrayal to the public the railway minister increased the freight charges secretly when she has organized open meeting against the price hike at Esplanade in recent past. The new ‘fatwa’ of Mamata Banerjee would even upset the make-shift effort of the central government to curb down the soaring price of essential commodities.

CPI(M) West Bengal State Secretary and Chairman, Left Front Biman Basu has sharply criticized not only the order but way in which it has been endorsed keeping common people totally unaware and in the dark.

Railway while delimitating the freight has changed the classification of various items. The new order has changed the classification of sugar from no.110 to no.120. The freight charge of sugar transportation therefore is going to rise at a higher rate. For the first 100km transportation the freight charge would be Rs.100.10 per ton compared to the earlier rate Rs.91.70 per ton. For 200km to 210km it would be Rs.179 from earlier Rs.164; the increment is Rs. 15 per ton; for 501km the increment is Rs.32; for 1001km the amount is Rs.63; 1501km the amount is Rs.92 and for 2101km the increment is Rs.118.

The huge freight hike is doubtlessly going to push the price of sugar up in the market directly and have a cascading effect on other commodities also. The freight charge of ‘salt’ has also been charged at a similar rate. Besides that the rates of iron ore, cement, coal, steel and other base products are raised by 4% which is going to bash the market and have definitely a cascading effect on other essential consumer products in all forms of market.

When price of onions and almost all essential products have touched an unbearable height this increase of freight charge will

• Increase the transportation cost of the product;
• Increase the initial price of the commodity;
• Increase the price of other products of similar range;
• Increase other products in retail market;
• Encourage black marketers to hoard essential commodities;
• Suffocate common people in all aspects of life.