Centre 'scaled down' rail coach unit project in Sonipat: Hooda

Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda on Friday alleged that the NDA government has "scaled down" a rail coach manufacturing unit approved by the UPA dispensation in Sonipat district to a refurbishing and rehabilitation factory.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of a Rs 500-crore rail coach refurbishing and rehabilitation factory in Sonipat, during his visit to Sampla in Rohtak district on Tuesday.

However, he said, the previous UPA government in 2013 had approved a "full-fledged" coach manufacturing unit at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore.

"After nearly six years, instead of starting the project approved during our time, what the Modi government has done is scaled down the project," he told reporters in Chandigarh.

"I raise strong objection to what the Narendra Modi government has done," the Rohtak MP said.

Hooda said now "no manufacturing will take place" at the unit and it will be reduced to a repair factory.

"The Centre is not giving anything much to Haryana, but what has been approved even that is being taken back," Hooda, son of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, alleged.

He said he had attended the unveiling of a 64-foot-tall statue of peasant leader Sir Chhotu Ram in Sampla on Tuesday by Modi, but opted out of another function of the prime minister nearby because "no provision had been made for my speech despite I being an MP from the area".