Railway Budget disappointing, says BJP in RS

BJP today dubbed the Railway Budget 2013-14 as "disappointing" and said it was full of promises made by his predecessors in the last eight years that still remained unfulfilled.

Initiating the discussion on rail budget, Balbir Punj (BJP) said, "I was hoping that the first Railway Minister of the Congress in the last 17 years would take measures that would bring the railways on track but his budget speech was disappointing and it seems we have lost an opportunity."

He said the rail budget was high on promises and seemed to be a "cut and paste job" of promises made by previous Railway Ministers. The BJP MP said the budget presented by Pawan Kumar Bansal has a lot of promises and announcements about new projects and schemes but did not elaborate on what happened to the announcements made in the last year.

On the budget announcement that 60 more stations would be made world-class, Punj said there was no station in the country which met this criterion.

"No station can be termed as world-class in this country. The New Delhi station also does not provide even the basic amenities," he said. Punj attacked Bansal for the death of 40 pilgrims in a stampede at the Allahabad station during the Mahakumbh and sought to know whether the Minister had visited the city himself to take stock of the arrangements made there.

He said had Bansal taken inspiration from former prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, he would have resigned. On the five per cent rise in freight charges, the BJP leader said there have 450 revisions of freight fare from 2001 and the present Railway Minister has also tried to make profit from this sector ignoring the adverse impact this can have on its future.

Saifuddin Soz (Cong) said compartments were "very dirty" and the passengers are not even provided equipment to fight mosquitoes there. He urged the Railways to increase passenger fares "within acceptable limits" as the organisation was passing through a critical period.

Soz thanked the Railways Minister for announcing the Leh- Kargil-Srinagar line and urged the government to put Jammu and Kashmir on the railway map as it would ensure its "emotional integration" with the country.