CPI, BJP, SP flay 'anti-people' rail budget

New Delhi, Feb 26: The CPI, BJP and the SP today termed the Railway Budget 2008-09 ''anti-people'' and said it totally ignored certain regions of the country.

Reacting to the various budget provisions, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said it seemed the rail budget had not been prepared by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad but by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. ''All efforts in the railway budget are towards corporatisation and privatisation...as a result the wagons, containers and terminal services are being privatised by way of corporatisation,'' he said.

The budget was for the affluent middle class and not for the common man, the CPI leader added.

''The budget has totally ignored Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.'' The budget speech contained no reference to filling up of more than one lakh jobs in the Railways and also provided no relief to the monthly ticket holders, he claimed.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohan Singh said the rail budget had totally ignored Uttar Pradesh, the lifeline state of the country.''The UPA's express train has met with an accident even before it took off.'' The Railway Budget is for the village of the Railway Minister, he added.

BJD leader Prasanna Acharya also criticised the Railway budget, saying it has not provided anything to Orissa despite many assurances given by the Minister to the State earlier.

Flaying the rail budget, BJP leader Harin Pathak said it had neglected the Western region of the country from where the Railway earns the highest.

UNI