New Delhi, July 09: Opposition parties charged Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee with neglecting other states in the Railway Budget while showering “special affection” on West Bengal with an eye on the assembly elections.
As the debate on the railway budget continued for the second day in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, BJP and SP took a swipe at the UPA government saying the focus and thrust of the railway budgets changes with the change of Railway Ministers.
“When Lalu was the Railway Minister, it was all Bihar and when Mamata is the Railway Minister it is West Bengal,” senior BJP member Gopinath Munde said in the Lok Sabha.
He said Prasad’s budget had kept the Lok Sabha elections in view while Banerjee’s budget has kept the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls in mind.
In the Rajya Sabha, Samajwadi Party member Virendra Bhatia termed the budget as “West Bengal-centric” because of assembly polls due in 2011.
“Mamata gave a lot of mamata (affection) to West Bengal … She has to fight elections in the state. But she should remember that she is the Railway Minister not for West Bengal alone but for the entire country,” he said.
Prabodh Panda (CPI) said the budget was “distinguished” for giving due importance to West Bengal and promising a White Paper on functioning of ministry in the last five years.
He cautioned against treating Public-Private Partnership as the “panacea” for all ills of railways.
His party colleague in Rajya Sabha Syed Azeez Pasha regretted that not even one Duronto (fast non-stop) trains has been given a stoppage at Hyderabad.
Tarini Kanta Roy (CPI-M) also said in the Upper House that the budget has not addressed the issue of contract workers and millions of vendors engaged in the railways.
Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena) while praising a number of provisions of railway budget wanted an announcement from Railway Minister against privatisation.
AIADMK member K Malaisamy said that the proposal for running double decker trains is impractical and the decision to run non-stop trains is only an idea which will not work.
Taking a dig at Banerjee, B S Koshiyari (BJP) said “it seems the main target of UPA’s 100-day plan as well as rail budget was to “push the former Rail Minister Lalu Prasad out of AC saloon to Garib Rath.”
P Rajeeve (CPI-M) said the major thrust of the budget is privatisation and government’s proposal for public private partnership is privatisation through back door.
The budget had not made any provisions to make railways profitable, Yogi Adityanath (BJP) said adding that degradation of the railways has led to demands from time to time for its privatisation.
Banerjee will reply to the debate tomorrow.
-Agencies