REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW DELHI -- Several political parties in India on Saturday launched nationwide protests over the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's decision to hike passenger train fares by 14 percent.
Some 400 members of the Congress party demonstrated against the fare hike in the Indian capital and police had to resort to use water cannons to disperse them.
Local TV channels showed footage of protests breaking out in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The protests there were led by the state's ruling Samajwadi Party workers, demanding an immediate rollback of the fare hike.
The government on Friday announced the fare hike.
Indian Railways, one of the world's largest railway networks which transports an estimated 25 million passengers each day, is currently facing a severe financial crunch.
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