Unjustified rant

Sir — We all know that it will be a long haul, but Union Minister for Railways DV Sadananda Gowda’s pragmatic Rail Budget could begin the process of revival of Indian Railways. It is alleged that Mr Gowda has favoured Karnataka. That’s not really true.

Moreover, former Railway Ministers CK Jaffer Sharief, Abdul Ghani Khan Choudhury, Nitish Kumar, lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan and Mamata Banerjee had blatantly pushed their State’s interests on the Indian railway map while ignoring the concerns of other States.

Each of them feathered the regional nest. Criticism by the Trinamool Congress that the Budget has ignored West Bengal’s interests or that by the Congress that States ruled by it have been bypassed, is unjustified and demonstrates an entitlement mentality.