Odisha protests reduction in Railway budget allocation

"I strongly protest against this unilateral reduction in the budget for the state of Odisha. I request you to take immediate steps for restoration of the original budgetary allocation made for the state for the year 2012-13," Patnaik wrote to Minister of Railways Dr C P Joshi.

Dubbing it as a matter of regret, Patnaik said that Indian Railways had reduced an additional amount of Rs 34 crore from the budgetary allocation of East Coast Railway including Rs 2 crore each from the original budget grant for three major ongoing B G Rail Links.

Those lines were: Khurda Road-Bolangir, Lanjigarh Road -Junagarh and Talcher-Bimalagatrh, Patnaik pointed out in the letter.

Stating that the Railway Ministry had in June reduced Rs 186 crore from the original budgetary allocation of Rs 723 crore announced in the annual budget, Patnaik said this amount was against the state government's projected total demand of Rs 2345 crore for different projects in te state.

"When the state of Odisha contributes revenue of more than Rs 7,500 crore annually to the Indian Railways, it is matter of regret that Rs 220 crore has been reduced out of the paltry budgetary allocation of Rs 723 crore," the chief minister said.

Patnaik said this kind of reduction in the budgetary allocation would greatly hamper the process of better connectivity in the state. "Such reductions time and again result in delay in completion of railway projects and also leads to discontentment among the people," he said.