The Communist Party of India (Marxist-leninist) State committee has expressed disappointment with the Union rail budget. Reacting to the Union rail budget presented by railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the CPI (Ml) State secretary Rajendra Pratholi termed it disappointing.
He said that even earlier after coming to power the NDG Government had hiked rail fares. He said, “Even when there was a drop in the price of petroleum products in the international market, there was no decrease in the rail fares. Talk of modernisation of railways in five years in this budget is not convincing. There is no road map for modernisation visible in this rail budget. The Modi government has opened the door for intrusion of foreign capital in the country. Uttarakhand has once again been disappointed with the rail budget. Modi’s claim about linking the Char Dham shrine in Uttarakhand by rail also appears to be hollow now. There has been talk of establishing the Tanakpur-Bageshwar and Rishikesh-Karnprayag railway lines for some time now but these were not even mentioned in the rail budget,” he said, while adding that there is nothing specifically beneficial for Uttarakhand in this rail budget.