Oppn trashes rail budget

Opposition today trashed the rail budget as a document which lacks vision and roadmap, with some members alleging neglect of states as no new trains have been announced.
"It is anti-people and visionless... The people have been deceived... There is no roadmap in the rail budget," said Trinamool Congress member Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said while participating in a debate on Rail Budget 2015-16 in the Lok Sabha.
She insisted that it has "nothing" and many of its provisions were a "joke".
Dastidar said Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had ignored the 'Vision Document' of Trinamool chief and former Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and questioned whether it was a "political vendetta".

She attacked the government for not announcing any new trains and said it should have added coaches, if not increased the number of trains. She also alleged that safety and security had not been paid proper attention.
The Trinamool member also alleged that states have been ignored and West Bengal had got nothing.

M B Rajesh (CPIM) said the railways needs bold steps to strengthen its public sector character as FDI and PPP investments does not materialise easily.
"We do not believe PPP and FDI will reap good results for railways," he said.
Rajesh further said due to fare hike, passenger earnings have fallen in the current fiscal.

"Government should have brought down passenger fares in light of decline in crude prices. The hike in freight charges will streghthen the inflationary spiral," he said.
Allocation for railway safety has been lowered by Rs 2,200 crore which is "alarming and shocking", he said.
Noting that Prabhu has made attractive promises and set high targets in the Budget, Rajesh said: "Because of his big dreams, I will call him a romantic minister".