Kolkata, Feb 25 (Inditop.com) The bounty for West Bengal in Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s budget has been widely hailed by people in her home state. But Thursday, some took a hard look at the viability of the projects announced by her, with prominent dailies wondering how these would be funded.
The largest circulated Bengali daily, Anandabazar Patrika, in its front page report, said: “Mamata runs vote express”. It pointed out that there was a dearth of funds to implement so many “generous schemes”.
The paper mentioned the goodies showered on the state by Banerjee but in a separate front page write-up highlighted that many of the projects announced by the minister last year were yet to see the light of day for want of money.
Another Bengali daily Bartaman, however, was effusive in its praise. The caption for the editorial was: “Mamata has shown enough farsightedness in the rail budget.”
It also carried op-ed pieces commending Wednesday’s budget.
West Bengal’s ruling Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in its Bengali mouthpiece Ganashakti came down heavily on rival Trinamool chief Banerjee’s proposals, describing them as “pure privatisation of the railways”.
The paper said Banerjee was playing Santa Claus for Bengal with an empty pocket.
In the budget, the state got six of the nine new rail line proposals, five of the 25 projects for doubling of lines, besides three of the 10 new Duronto trains, in addition to a large number of express trains, and suburban and non-suburban trains.
The state has also got two out of six Matribhoomi specials for women, one of three Karmabhoomi trains, besides being associated with half a dozen of the 16 Bharat Tirth trains that would promote tourism.
The minister’s decision not to raise passenger fares has brought relief, but many feel the budget did not address the problem of frequent robberies on trains.
“It’s good that she has given us a lot of trains, increased the frequency of a large number of them. West Bengal has got the maximum number of new lines also. We congratulate her for this. But what about the robberies? The budget is virtually silent on this,” said banker T.P. Dutta.
There were others who felt Banerjee had used the railway budget yet again simply to raise her stock among voters ahead of next year’s state assembly polls.
“She promised so many projects last year also. How many of them have become a reality? What happened to the rail coach factory at Kanchrapara, the power plant at Adra and the other factories she had proposed?” asked Sumit Majumdar, a real estate promoter.
“And I read from the papers that the financial position of the railways is not that good. Then how can she implement so many projects?” he wondered.
Majumdar said the promises made by the minister in this budget about the Kolkata Metro were only a repetition of what she had said in her speech a year ago.
