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Opposition lashes out at Railway Budget

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Opposition members and a couple of National Democratic Alliance allies on Monday lashed out against the Railway Budget, saying that its focus was concentrated on two or three states with the rest being blatantly ignored.

"It regrettable that Madam (Railway Minister) Mamata Banerjee has not even ensured the budgetary support of even a single rupee in the railway budget which has just been presented in the Lok Sabha," said senior Congress leader Narayan Dutt Tiwari.

"It is all the more surprising since there has been no increase in passenger fares and negligible increase in the rate of freight. The announcements (of railway projects which) that Mamataji has made are all old for which funding will be a major problem. This is against all logic," said Tiwari.

Tiwari pointed out that there was no reflection of the economic belt-tightening as brought out recently in the government's Economic Survey in the railway budget.

"It is strange that Mamataji, who has always been advocating caution in government-spending, should disregard the warnings in the Economic Survey," he asserted.

He hoped that in the coming days, the railway minister would "see reason and rectify the imbalance that her railway budget had perpetuated".

Biju Janata Dal member Prasannacharya threatened to launch an agitation against the railway budget because he felt that barring two or three states, its 'plus points' had gone to West Bengal and a couple of others, "while the majority of the states have been 'blatantly ignored'.

According to Prasannacharya, the railway budget reflects the continuing injustice to Orissa with successive railway ministers preferring to giving it the go-by.

"Year after year, Orissa is being ignored even as others states, especially those to which the railway ministers belong, benefit in terms of various railway projects. We are totally dissatisfied and if our entreaties are further ignored, we will launch an agitation against the injustice," Prasannacharya contended.

Rashtriya Janata Dal Lok Sabha MP Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said: "Iss NDA sarkar-ka zulm railway budget mein bhi jhalak raha hai jahan tak Bihar ka sawaal hai (this NDA government's injustice is reflected in its railway budget as far as Bihar is concerned)."

He asserted that the people of his state now knew that the Vajpayee government did not appear to be interested in giving railway projects to the state and that "this will prove to be dear for the BJP".

According to the RJD MP, there were no railway developmental projects in Bihar and even the old ones had been left to languish in anonymity. He warned the government that unless it came forward with railway projects for Bihar, its people would "give a befitting reply to the BJP during the polls."

TDP Lok Sabha leader K Yerran Naidu pointed out that resource constraints, like all other ministries, was haunting the railway ministry and the railway minister, under the circumstances., had sought to make the best out of a bad situation.

However, he indicated that he was not satisfied because Andhra Pradesh "had not been given its due "and that after going through the railway budget documents, he would approach Mamata for "reconsideration on Andhra Pradesh."

ALSO READ:
The Railway Budget 2001-2002
The Budget 2001-2002 Special
The Y2K Railway Budget
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