Bhubaneswar, July 06: Angered over reduced allocation of funds for ongoing projects in the Railway budget, the ruling BJD in Orissa today called a statewide two-hour ‘rail-roko’ tomorrow.
“The rail roko will be held from 10:00 am to noon tomorrow to protest the Railway budget which ignored Orissa’s interests,” BJD general secretary Narendra Swain said.
Stating that Railway minister Mamata Banerjee allocated only Rs 715.22 Crore in the budget against last year’s allocation of Rs 949.34 crore, Swain said this showed the Centre’s “negligence” towards the state.
The ruling party said while the Railways earned Rs 5,000 crore from Orissa every year, it was being “miserly” in allocation for the state.
The state had demanded an allocation of at least Rs 1,520 crore for development of railway infrastructure.
“Many lines linked to economic development of the state received small allocations,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said.
“Banerjee ignored our demand,” he said.
–PTI