Jaya criticises rail budget as disappointing

Chennai, Feb 26 (UNI) AIADMK Supremo and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today described the Railway Budget as an ''all round disappointment''.

In a statement here, she alleged that there was nothing substantial in the Budget, presented by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, for the farmers and the poor people.

''The poor have been kept out of this budget'', she alleged.

Stating that the Budget had brought little cheer to millions of rail users, Ms Jayalalithaa charged there had been an attempt to carry forward the reforms agenda.

She described the announcement of five new trains for Tamil Nadu out of the total of 32 as 'dismal".

''Adequate attention has not been paid to the long pending demands of the state like electrification of lines and doubling of tracks'', she alleged expressing disappointment over non-mentioning of a dedicated freight corridor for the South.

The announcements like e-ticketing in petrol bunks, post offices and ATMs, hand held computers for on-the-spot reservation, automatic ticket vending machines would only cater to the upper class. It would have no impact on the millions of ordinary railway travellers, she said.

''The proposed huge investment in container operations instead of passenger amenities, only shows that the Railways is increasingly being treated as a business enterprise rather than an instrument of public service'', she charged.

She said the benefits of much-touted turnaround and profitability of the Railways have not been passed on to the public.

The Railway Minster's tall claim that the Budget is pro-poor is only based on marginal cuts in fares and increase of a few unreserved bogies, she alleged.

She said the proposed cut in the AC coach fares was a necessity because of stiff competition posed by Airline Budget adding that the marginal cut in sleeper class fares was not even a full roll back of the surreptitious increase made in the last budget by converting a lage number of trains into super fast trains and the increased number of seats under 'tatkal' scheme.

''In fact, the ordinary sleeper fare and the unreserved class fares should have been slashed considerably'', she said claiming that the announcement of eight more Garib Raths and 32 trains were insignificant when no real ''Garib'' (poor person) could afford to travel by these.

CPI State Secretary D Pandian welcomed the Budget and expressed happiness over non increase in fares in general.

UNI