Nitish expresses disappointment with rail budget

Patna, Feb 25 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumarexpressed disappointment with the Railway budget with regardto ''lack of attention'' on safety measures and said adequateattention should be paid in this regard.

"The Railway Minister should pay due attention to thesafety measures and whatever was required to be done in thisregard must be done," Kumar, himself a Railway minister duringthe NDA rule, sai.

He took a dig at his arch rival Lalu Prasad and said noattention was paid to Railway safety when Prasad was inoffice.

On Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee''s statement thatRailway was passing through a financial crunch, Kumar mockedPrasad for claiming a profit of Rs one lakh crore during hisstint at the Rail Bhavan and asked "Where did that money go?"

He demanded a probe into the profit claimed to have beenmade by Railway during Prasad''s tenure. "The claim must beexposed."

Referring to Bihar''s expectation from the Railways,Kumar urged Banerjee to complete all under-construction railprojects in the state and launch a new train on Patna-Mumbairoute in view of increasing passenger traffic in the section.

"I hope that the Railway minister will pay heed to theaspiration and expectation of the people of Bihar," he added.

PTI KDK KKKK02252004