Remember how Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee said she had "no objection" to the rail fare hike in the highest classes used by the wealthy when she pushed railway minister Dinesh Trivedi out of office for the across-the-board hike? Her lieutenant Mukul Roy, railway minister for three days now, has deferred to her wishes.

On Thursday, Roy retained Trivedi's 15 paise and 30 paise per km increase in AC 2-tier and AC-I respectively while rolling back the rest of the hikes proposed in the Railway Budget. He announced the decisions first in the Lok Sabha and later in the Rajya Sabha while replying to three days of debate on the Railway budget. Parliament later passed a vote-on-account for Railways and related appropriation bills by voice vote.

He did not refer to Mamata's demand for a rollback but vowed to continue her agenda in the Vision 2020 she had declared as the railway minister while reading out his first 15-minute speech as the new railway minister.

"The proposal to increase fare by 2 paise per km, 3 paise per km and 5 paise per km in second class suburban and non-suburban and Sleeper class is a huge drain on the pocket of the masses. Similarly, increase in the fare of AC Chair Car and AC 3-tier, which is now patronised by the middle class, is also quite severe. I intend to give relief to the already over burdened common man by not effecting any increase in these classes," Roy announced.

He also put to bed Trivedi's idea of an independent tariff regulatory authority to decide fare and freight rates, ruling out constitution of a committee proposed in the railway budget to study utility and role of such an authority. Also scrapped was Trivedi's proposal to give a corporate character to the Railway by expanding its Railway Board.

Instead of burdening the travelling masses already reeling under inflation, Roy talked of mopping up revenue for Railways through non-conventional methods, by exploring the huge potential of advertisements and use of its vacant lands and air space and going for more public-private  partnership (PPP) projects.

Lest he were seen as compromising on safety by not allowing more earnings of the railways, he announced that the safety measures proposed by his predecessor will be implemented and promised to eliminate in timebound manner all unmanned crossings that cause most of the accidents. His second top priority after safety will be cleanliness and hygiene, he declared.

Trivedi was quite firm in refusing the MPs' demand for more stoppages of fast trains since it would defeat the purpose of running such trains, but Roy tried to strike a rapport with the MPs saying they seek more stops and new trains to meet aspirations of the people and hence he would respond to them in due course of time, taking care of the constraints.

Justifying the rollback of the fare hike, Roy referred to many members anguished during the debate that it would impact the 'Aam Aadmi,' he said: "The concern of the common man is over-riding, even if it means biting the bullet of a different kind, the impact of the fare hike on the Aam Aadmi is huge."