State ignored: Congress

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, February 26

The Congress today termed the Railway Budget as disappointing. It said as far as the state was concerned, neither any new railway line had been proposed nor there was any indication of speeding up the Rishikesh-Karanprayag and Tanakpur-Bageshwar railway lines.

Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Anshul Shri Kunj said the Railway Budget had exposed the bias of the BJP government against the hill state.

Kunj said though the people of Uttarakhand had given the BJP a record mandate in the Lok Sabha elections, not even one railway line or extension of route had been mentioned in the Railway Budget presented by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in Parliament today.

“The BJP has once again played petty politics as despite tall claims made by all five BJP parliamentarians (BC Khanduri, RP Nishank, Mala Raj Laxmi Shah, Ajay Tamta and BC Koshyari), the Budget has nothing to offer to the state.

On the other side, the Congress had initiated the Rishikesh-Karanprayag, Tanakpur-Bageshwar railway line surveys, upgraded railway stations, junctions and provided additional coaches in various trains,” Kunj said.

He added the state being home to Char Dham shrines — Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri — and Hemkund Sahib, besides route of the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, tough geographical conditions and proximity tothe international border, people had a lot of expectations from the BJP’s first full-fledged Railway Budget, but got only disappointment.