Nitish was about to privatise railways: Lalu

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Patna, Mar 1 (UNI) Taking a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today said Mr Kumar was all set to ''privatise Indian railways during his regime as rail minister in the erstwhile NDA government.'' Mr Prasad told newspersons here that in the name of 'India shining' the Indian railways nosedived during the previous regime.

''I revived the railways from the financial mess and projected a profit of Rs 20,000 crores,'' he said, adding it was his 'jadoo tona' (magic) which helped in the revival of railways.

He said the railways attained a growth rate of 14 per cent through passenger fare, 17 per cent through freight charges and 48 per cent through other means during the financial year 2006-07.

Mr Prasad retorted sharply at Mr Kumar's reactions on the railway budget, saying, ''Nitish ke samay par rail ka bura haal tha. Nitish duba kar aaye the rail ko(at the time of Nitish Kumar the railways was in a bad condition. He had left them in shambles).

Mr Prasad also refuted claims of his predecessor who had alleged that the present incumbent was drawing mileage from the work taken up by him.

''The safety measures which Nitish Kumar claimed to have taken up was an eyewash as the Khanna committee had mentioned that non-replacement of overaged property of the railways had caused accidents then,'' he said, adding it was the Khanna committee which had recommended replacing such property and a safety fund of Rs 17,000 crores was raised with Rs 12,000 crore share of Central government and Rs 5000 crores of railways.

''Development of railways was a distant dream during the regime of Mr Kumar as it could not even pay its dividends,'' Mr Prasad said.

Regarding the apprehensions of Mr Kumar about the proposed railway factory at Madhepura, the Minister said the fate of railway factory in Harnauth was hanging fire because of the 'lackadaisical' attitude of the state government which failed to provide even a single acre of land to the railways which had applied for it in November 2005 for construction of a colony. He said the Harnauth factory would be completed by October 2008 if the Nitish government provides land on time.

Mr Prasad alleged that the Nitish government, which came to power with the help of ''blackmarketeers and hoarders,'' had not taken any step to check the rising prices. He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had written to all state governments to check prices as they too were duty-bound to control it in their jurisdiction.

UNI

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