New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday criticised the Railway Budget presented by Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, calling it 'anti-aam aadmi' and an 'annexure budget'.
"It is an annexure budget. Everything has been hiked. The common man will be severely affected," said Ananth Kumar. "There is no vision in the budget. It is an anit-aam aadmi budget. It's a budget by an annexure minister of Mamata Banerjee. Where is the aam aadmi of Mamata Banerjee? Where is the good economics of the economist PM?" he asked.
"The government cannot hoodwink the people by this number jugglery," he said.
Senior leader Gopinath Munde said the Rail Budget had shattered the expectations of the aam aadmi.
"No provisions have been made for the backward areas of the country and there is not much for Mumbai," Munde said. "Aam aadmi is already battling price rise. With this budget there will be more price rise," he added.
Meanwhile, Yashwant Sinha said, "The Railway Minister has taken everybody for a ride. There was a need for hiking fares. The Prime Minister should explain why the fares were not hiked for 8 years."
He added, "Safety is also important. Increasing the speed of trains is going to be dangerous. We will be opposing Railway Budget on many issues.
"Figures given by Railway Minister shows that the Railways is inefficient. The fares should have been increased long time back. Now it will just increase the burden of the common man.
"I hope that the general budget does not put a burden on common man. It (Railway Budget) was a game of figures. When we go to fine print, then we will come to know how much burden it will put on the common man."
Trivedi on Wednesday introduced the Railway Budget 2012-13 with a marginal increase in fares.
Trivedi increased the passenger fares by 2 paise per km for suburban and ordinary second class; 3 paise per km for mail/express second class; 5 paise per km for sleeper class; 10 paise per km for AC Chair Car, AC 3 tier and First Class; 15 paise per km for AC 2 tier and 30 paise per km for AC I. Even the price of platform tickets has been raised to Rs 5 from Rs 3.
The budget also seeks to introduce 75 new Express trains and 21 new passenger trains.
Trivedi also laid a lot of stress on safety and modernisation. Pointing out that he took over as the Railway Minister on a day when there was a train accident, he said that he would work towards making the Railway one of the safest mode of transport in the country.
Comments
0 comment