The Congress and other Opposition parties on Tuesday denounced the Railway Budget as “pro-rich” with former Railway Minster Mallikarjun Kharge saying it seeks to please the home State of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The Budget is only for Ahmedabad,” said Kharge, who is also leader of Congress in the lok Sabha adding that the Budget has nothing new to offer. There is no new scheme, no new plan and no new railway line. They themselves have admitted that it is a plan holiday. When they are not going to give anything what is the point in talking about it.
Biju Janta Dal (BJD) described the Budget, “quite shocking” and “illogical” as it complained that no emphasis had been made in it for the areas that generated more revenue from freight. BSP president Mayawati said that her party had hoped the Government would make an announcement bringing down fares in view of the inflation.
“The Budget also speaks of privatisation and of bringing in private investment but, while doing so, there should be reservation for people belonging to the SC and ST communities,” said the former UP CM.
“The Budget is illogical as far as Odisha is concerned. The logic has to be explained. The Government says priority would be given to those areas which have been neglected... It gets Rs 14,000 crore from freight services from Odisha and large parts of the State do not have rail connectivity,” said BJD MP Baijayant Panda.
“There was no reference to Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Kerala, Telangana and Seemandhra. These are the parts where a large chunk of the population resides. Also, all pending projects should have been completed first,” said JD(U) president Sharad Yadav. CPI(M) on Tuesday described the NDA Government’s maiden Railway Budget as “a cosmetic exercise” and said it was designed to impose greater burdens on the common people who used Railways the most.
“It is a classic exercise in a beauty parlour treatment. It was a cosmetic exercise and the emphasis has been in high-sounding bullet trains and commercial freight corridors with no budgetary calculations to back up,” CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told a press conference here.