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Railway budget big disappointment for Sikkim, North Bengal

Railway budget big disappointment for Sikkim, North Bengal

PRASHANT ACHARYA, EOI with PTI inputs, SILIGURI, 26 Feb 2015: For the people of north Bengal and Sikkim, the railway budget that was presented by railway minister Suresh Prabhu in Lok Sabha on Thursday has come as a big disappointment.
The minister did not announce any new train service for the region that serves as a crucial gateway to Sikkim and the neighbouring countries of Bhutan and Nepal. The budget also did not mention a word on plans for running electric trains in north Bengal as also any thought on doubling railway tracks in the region. Most of the respondents to this correspondent’s queries however, agreed on one point: that the rail budget has brought a smile among residents of metros and other major cities.
Critics of the budget feared that the emphasis on public-private-partnership models and involvement of private sector companies in future plans in the railways would in effect help metropolitan India and leave the peripheries like north Bengal and the northeast out in the cold.
CPM veteran Ashok Bhattacharya criticised the rail budget as anti-people saying it has given nothing to the people of north Bengal. “This is just a shrewd move to indirectly support favoured private companies,” he alleged.
The railway minister had allotted a large fund for extension of railway lines – like trebling of tracks where there are double lines – on the trunk routes connecting the four metros but this would bring little relief to people living in the outlying areas like north Bengal and the northeast, critics pointed out.
In fact, Prabhu in his entire budget speech made only one reference to the northeast, saying Meghalaya had been joined by the railways, there was now a direct train service between Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi and that train services would be extended to the Barak Valley.
But, there was no mention of the plan to extend train services to Rongpo in Sikkim, a project important not only for the common people in the landlocked Himalayan state but also from the point of view of defence, observers pointed out. China had extended train services to Lhasa long ago, they pointed out, and would soon reach Xigaze, which is close to the India-China border in Sikkim.
People of Darjeeling were also feeling deprived as former railway minister Mamata Banerjee had promised that broad gauge train services would be extended to the foothills with new termini but these had not materialized.
Darjeeling district Trinamool Congress secretary Krishna Chandra Pal also believes the rail budget has failed to make the middle and lower class people happy. In Kolkata, Trinamool leader described the railway budget as "anti-people and anti-development" aimed only at befooling people. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Centre was trying to befool the people in the country by saying there was no increase in passenger fare."But they have already hiked the rail fare after coming to power," she pointed out.
Mamata said the Centre had earlier promised that any decrease in diesel price would get reflected in the rail fare with a corresponding decrease.But, this was not done although diesel prices were reduced several times.
"With the decrease in diesel price six-seven times in the last one year, the fare should have been decreased too. But without doing that they are trying to take credit for not hiking the rail fare. It is an attempt to befool people," she regretted.
The proposal of a Centre-state joint venture in Railway projects would ultimately go against the interest of states since state governments hardly had any source of earning revenue of their own, state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said.
But, Darjeeling district BJP president Rathindra Nath Bose described the budget as a historic one and beneficial for all classes. He said the railway minster may not have announced new trains or new tracks, but his budget will surely help the Indian Railways achieve unprecedented levels of success.
The Confederation of Indian Industry also believed this year’s rail budget is forward-looking and considerate of all classes of society.
“While recognising that under-investment has been a persistent problem in the Indian Railways, railway minister Suresh Prabhu unveiled a comprehensive plan for modernising the Railways and improving customer experience,” noted CII president Ajay S Shriram. He pointed out at the several innovative financing mechanisms proposed by the minister including setting up special purpose vehicles for raising long-term investment from pension funds and multilateral agencies. Prabhu has set an ambitious target of bringing in investments of Rs8.5 lakh crore to the Railways over the next five years. This would result in a truly modern rail system for the country, one that would significantly propel economic growth, remarked Shriram.

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