Naveen cut up with Railway Budget

BHUBANESWAR: Describing the railway budget as extremely disappointing for the State, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that increase in passenger fares would adversely affect the common man. While the State Government had demanded an allocation of Rs 2,345 crore for ongoing projects during the 2012-13 fiscal, Odisha received only Rs 713.98 crore, he said. The allocation of funds for new lines, gauge conversion, doubling and electrification for 2012-13 was Rs 713.98 crore as against Rs 1,361.67 crore for 2011-12.  This is grossly insufficient considering the requirement of ongoing projects in the State and completely falls short of our legitimate demand, Naveen told mediapersons here adding that allotment for the State was half of its demands. Though the State demanded introduction of 19 express trains to important destinations, only six new trains were sanctioned, the Chief Minister said. In fact, some trains announced in the last budget speech are still to be introduced, he said.  The Koraput-Sambalpur passenger and Visakhapatnam-Sambalpur Express trains are yet to see the light of the day, he said. The Chief Minister said that though 11 new lines have been announced in the Budget, not even one of those is for Odisha. “We have been demanding expansion of the rail network and improving rail services in underdeveloped areas and have been requesting the Ministry of Railways to treat them as national projects, but they were not considered,” he said and added that this is very disappointing. Stating that special needs of industries in the State require support of robust rail infrastructure, Naveen said, “We find that the Central Government is completely insensitive to our demands.” The promised world class railway station for Bhubaneswar and Puri have not materialised though they were announced in 2010, he said.NEGLECT ALLEGED: Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei said that the railway budget is yet another instance of Central neglect towards Odisha. With the reduced allocation there will be no progress of Khurda-Balangir, Sukinda-Duburi-Angul, Talcher-Bimlagarh and Sambalpur-Paradip railway line projects, he said. Describing the budget as anti-poor, the State unit of the BJP alleged that the hike in the passenger fares to meet the expenses of the railways is going to hit the poor people hard. The Khurda-Balangir railway line has not received the urgent attention of the Railways even in the current budget proposals, he said. Criticising the hike in the passenger fares, the CPI and CPM also said that the budget has neglected Odisha.