The Opposition on Friday described the Railway Budget presented by Railway Minister DV Sadananda Gowda to be replete with “wild dreams” and “glittering promises” without detailing plans for resource mobilisation and allocation.
The Congress said the Government has allocated Rs 100 crore for bullet train while it required Rs 60,000 crore for its execution. The BJP members, however, maintained that the Government had a very short time to prepare Budget and yet it came out with a sincere and highly effective Budget. Initiating debate in the lok Sabha, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury attacked the Government for bringing FDI in building railway infrastructure and allowing PPP in one of the biggest networks in the world.
“These models are not successful anywhere in the world,” said Chowdhury, a former Minister of State for Railways. He asked from where the Government was going to generate Rs 9 lakh crore for funding Diamond Quadrilateral project. He also took a dig at the Government’s proposal for running bullet trains in the country by allocating a meagre sum of Rs 100 crore, saying it was a very costly project.
“You have failed to give any roadmap to the common man. You live in a make-believe world. Start living in the real world. From where are you going to generate Rs 9 lakh crore for Diamond Quadrilateral projectIJ” he said.
Chowdhury alleged that there were various “factual mistakes” in the Budget presented by Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda by saying that the UPA Government did not start executing a majority of 99 projects announced during its rule. On the contrary, he said four of these projects sanctioned in 2013-14 were completed and 46 were about to be completed.
The Congress MP said delay in getting green clearances, land acquisition and protests in the areas where the project is envisaged were the major reasons for the delay in their execution. He said the Government, in its Budget, has created an impression that it was discontinuing projects including new lines and guage conversion which are not giving “proper return”. New lines are meant for bringing development in the backward regions of the country, Chowdhury said.
Rakesh Singh, the BJP MP from Jabalpur, MP, however defended and praised the Railway Budget saying it taken care of the diverse needs of all people and contributed to the national progress. The BJP member blamed the UPA Government for the ills bedeviling the railways. leader of the Congress in the House Mallikarjun Kharge made a short intervention saying railways did not incur loss but “yes” its profit reduced.
BJP member from Gorakhpur Yodi Adityanath said in the past “political agenda” set the Railway Budget proposals which “damaged” it. He said the Budget presented by the Railway Minister was very balanced and praiseworthy in the short-time available to him.