The leaders of Grand Secular Alliance in Bihar attacked the Centre terming the Rail Budget as “disappointing”. Mounting a scathing attack, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said that “the budget lacked vision for development”.
He said that the railway minister ignored regional balancing and overlooked safety issues.
“He had nothing new to offer, regional balancing has also been ignored and it seems that this Budget has no specific plans for development of the backward regions of the county,” Mr Kumar said while reacting on the Rail Budget in Patna.
He, while terming rail minister Suresh Prabhu as his personal friend and wishing him luck, said, “The Budget will disappoint people of this country as there is nothing for them and even the issue of cleanliness was ignored. In my view, it was just a formality and there was nothing which could make people happy.”
Asking the Centre to work for the development of the county by bringing schemes which will benefit the masses he said, “People want facilities in trains and stations.” He said that the condition of railways in the country has deteriorated after the NDA came to power. While referring to decreasing oil prices in international market he questioned the intention of the government for ignoring the fare issue.
“They should have actually decreased the fare as oil price in international market has gone down,” Mr Kumar said.
At the same time, former railway minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav also attacked the Budget calling it “a light budget”. “Under the NDA rule, railways has derailed today... railway is the lifeline of India. This country doesn’t need bullet trains.” He said during his regime the Railways had become a profitable unit but after the NDA came to power situation worsened.
