New Delhi, Feb 24 (Inditop.com) Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s rail budget Wednesday received its usual political brickbats and bouquets with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties slamming it and the ruling Congress thanking the minister for not increasing passenger fares.
“She appeared like West Bengal’s railway minister,” said BJP’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gopinath Munde.
Munde also criticised the minister for making announcements related to other ministries.
“When she was reading the budget it sounded like the budget of other ministries like health, human resource development and agriculture,” Munde said referring to the minister’s announcements that railway would set up hospitals, educational institutions and cold storage facilities.
Banerjee’s budget was also slammed by the Communist Party of India (CPI). Gurudas Das Gupta, a CPI leader, said the budget was focussed on the West Bengal assembly elections scheduled for next year.
“It is not a national budget. It is a political budget, which focuses on West Bengal elections,” he said.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Basudeb Acharia said: “The budget lacks innovative measures to improve efficiency of railways.”
But the railway minister found support in the Congress.
Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahamed said: “We welcome the budget. In the last seven years there is no hike in passenger fares. This is an achievement of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government 1 and 2. We thank the government.”
