Dinesh Trivedi sends resignation to Manmohan Singh

New Delhi, Mar 15 (ANI): A day after Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi came under fire from his party chief Mamata Banerjee for hiking rail passenger fares, the former on Thursday sent his resignation letter to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, according to television reports.

Dr. Singh is likely to accept TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's demand to sack Trivedi, indicate reports. .

Banerjee on Wednesday wrote to Dr. Singh to remove Trivedi as Railway Minister and proposed Mukul Roy's name for the post.

The Congress core group met at the Prime Minister's residence here late night and weighed options to deal with the demand made by Banerjee to sack Trivedi.

Trivedi in his budget proposals announced a minor increase in fares so as to cause minimal impact on the common man.

He has proposed one paise per km extra for suburban and ordinary second class travel.

Similarly, increase for mail express second class will be three paisa per km; for sleeper class five paisa per km; for AC chair car, AC 3 tier and First Class by 10 paise per km; AC 2 Tier 15 paise per km; and AC I 30 paise per km.

He said the corresponding rationalization in minimum distance and fare chargeable in various classes has also been proposed.

The proposed revisions will have marginal impact on the fares. The increase in fares for suburban second class passengers traveling 35 km will be Rs.2. For non-suburban second class ordinary passenger traveling a distance of 135 km, increase will be Rs.4 only.

For second class mail or express passenger traveling a distance of 375 km, the addition to the fare will be Rs.12 and that for a 750 km journey by sleeper class on mail/express train will be Rs.40. An AC 3 tier passenger traveling a distance of 530 km will be required to pay an additional Rs.57. The increase for AC 2 tier and AC I passenger traveling over same distance will be Rs.84 and Rs.163 respectively. (ANI)