TMC describes rail budget as 'anti-people' and 'anti-development'

Kolkata, Feb 26: Trinamool Congress described the railway budget proposals, presented on Thursday in Parliament, as "anti-people and anti-development" aimed only at befooling people.

Criticising the budget, TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Centre was trying to befool the people in the country by saying there was no hike in passenger fare.

"But they have already hiked the rail fare after coming to power," she pointed out.

Banerjee, a former Railway Minister, said the Centre had earlier promised that any decrease in diesel price would get reflected in the rail fare with a corresponding decrease. But, this was not done although diesel prices were reduced several times.

"With the decrease in diesel price six-seven times in the last one year, the fare should have been decreased too. But without doing that they are trying to take credit for not hiking the rail fare. It is an attempt to befool people," Banerjee regretted.

Furthermore, she pointed out, the state also failed to receive anything in this budget.

Mamata: West Bengal failed to receive anything in this rail budget

Senior TMC leader and state Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee said the budget failed to serve the interest of people and railway employees, while passenger safety was not given due priority.

During her tenure as Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee had announced 'Vision-2020' with her projection of various development till the year 2020, Mukherjee said adding "this rail budget neither have any vision, nor any action. We feel deprived."

"In this budget, the state has got no new project or train, while most of the ongoing projects, initiated during Mamata Banerjee's time, will suffer for want of funds," Mukherjee said.

The proposal of a Centre-state joint venture in Railway projects would ultimately go against the interest of states since state governments hardly had any source of earning revenue of their own, he further said.

PTI