Railway budget, a jugglery of data and gimmick: Nitish

Patna, Feb 26 (UNI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today described Mr Lalu Prasad's railway budget as a ''jugglery of data with false projection of profit and gimmicks.'' Mr Kumar told newspersons here that the Railway Minister was misleading the people by projecting the volume gain by the railways.

Terming the budget an 'eye wash', Mr Kumar said the railway was making profit due to over-loading and the volume gained was not a miracle at the time when the nation had achieved nine per cent GDP.

He said Mr Prasad had set aside the safety norms as overloading would affect the tracks causing serious accidents in the near future if the trend continued.

He said the tracks and bridges repaired at a cost of Rs 17000 crore during his regime as railway minister, were any how sustaining the load but might cause danger in the near future.

He said lowering of fare was a gimmick of Mr Prasad, who had already taxed the passengers pocket through surcharge and was now trying to gain popularity by lowering the fare.

The number of berths and bogies were being increased at the cost of the passenger's comfort, he alleged.

Mr Kumar also said it was a great irony that even after running into huge profit, the railway was not able to pay the dividends.

He said Mr Prasad had not come up with any new projects but had only repeated the old ones.

UNI