Shiv Sena slams Suresh Prabhu for depriving Maharashtra in Railway Budget

Mumbai, Feb 27: A day after Suresh Prabhu presented the Railway budget, a disappointed Shiv Sena today said barring a few announcements Maharashtra has not received any "long-term benevolence" from the Centre and that much more was expected from the BJP leader.

"A lot more was expected out of Suresh Prabhu as he is a leader from the Konkan region of Maharashtra. There is nothing extraordinary about it. Except the Wardha-Nagpur third line, Pune-Nashik railway line and the Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli- Baijnath line, the minister has not bestowed any long-term benevolence on the state," the Sena said in an edit in its mouthpiece 'Saamana.'

There were no special announcements for the Konkan region as well, except his promise of providing livelihood to 50,000 people of the region through the Railways, it said.

"As he did not announce any new trains for the country, he did not even increase the number of local trains ferrying Mumbaikars," the Sena said.

The Sena said that though the government's decision to increase the ticket booking intervals from 60 days to 120 days will ease commuter woes, it will at the same time benefit touts.

"The government plans to increase the number of rakes of trains having higher passenger volumes from 24 to 26. But are all railway stations across the country equipped to station these trains ?" the Sena asked.

PTI