Anti-people, brake-fail Rail Budget: Trinamool

Mamata said: “They have already hiked rail fare after coming to power.”

Passengers crowd the doorway of a local train on the outskirts of Kolkata Friday. (Source: AP)

Trinamool Congress chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the Railway Budget, presented by Union Minister Suresh Prabhu in the Parliament as “anti-people and anti-development”.

Claiming that the Centre was trying to befool the people by saying there was no hike in passenger fare, Mamata said: “They have already hiked rail fare after coming to power.”

Mamata, a former Railway Minister, said the Centre had earlier promised that any decrease in diesel price would get reflected in the rail fare with a corresponding decrease. “With the decrease in diesel price six to seven times in the last one year, the fares should also have come down. But without doing that they are trying to take credit for not hiking the rail fare. It is an attempt to befool people,” she added.She also said that the state has not received anything in the Budget.

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The Trinamool, on its AITC Twitter handle, stated: “This is a brake-fail Budget. This is a clerical and casual approach at a Budget. Parliament, which is a stakeholder in Railways, was not taken into confidence before making announcements on projects.”

The Rail Budget, this time, did not announce any new trains but stressed on the completion of ongoing projects and restructuring and repairing of the existing network. Prabhu has only announced that soon, the distance from Delhi to Kolkata will be covered overnight.

Trinamool, while claiming that the allocation for projects running in Bengal has increased by only one per cent, said: “We looked at the nitty-gritty of the Budget. Projects worth hundreds of crores are stuck in Bengal but allocation is less than one per cent.”

Maintaining that fares were increased by 25 per cent only months ago, it added that though diesel prices are down, fares have not been decreased. “Freight rates have increased. This will affect prices of essential commodities and in turn affect housewives and farmers,” it stated on Twitter.

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State Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee said the Budget failed to serve the interest of people and Railway employees, while passenger safety was not given due priority. “This Budget neither has any vision, nor any action. We feel deprived… The state has got no new project or train, while most of the ongoing projects, initiated during Mamata Banerjee’s time, will suffer for want of funds,” he added.

(inputs by PTI)

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