Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party on Tuesday strongly criticised the hike in railway passenger fares, and decried the "gross injustice" done to Andhra Pradesh in the Railway Budget.
"It's terrible that the Government of India chose to impose financial burden of several thousand crore rupees on common people by increasing railway passenger fares. The UPA government increased price of petrol and diesel 25 times in the last eight years leading to escalation in passenger and freight charges. Topping it, the railway fares have also been hiked," TDP president, N Chandrababu Naidu, said.
The Centre was preparing ground to further increase the fares in the name of fuel adjustment component, he alleged, demanding roll-back of fare hike.
Naidu also stated that "gross injustice" had been done to Andhra Pradesh "once again". "The announcements made in last year's Railway Budget have not been fulfilled. No new railway lines have been sanctioned for the state though AP is lagging in rail line density. Even for doubling of three main lines, funds were not allocated," the Leader of Opposition in state Assembly said.
Referring to the Rs 1,020 crore new Kotipalli-Narsapur railway line project, the foundation stone of which was laid by the then Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2001, Chandrababu regretted that not even Rs 20 crore had been spent on the project so far. Similarly, there was no mention of the proposed coach factory at Kazipet in Warangal district, he added.
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