Railway budget 2011 fails to impress Uttarakhand and U.P.
With the railway budget 2011 being criticized strongly by non-UPA state governments, Railways Minister Mamata Banjerjee is being accused of being partial, and directing all the attention towards her home state, West Bengal.
MANY HAD predicted the rail budget 2011 to be West Bengal centric due to assembly polls in West Bengal. But while catering to her home state and considerations of national politics, the budget did not address the long pending demands from the hilly state of Uttarakhand - that too when several proposals and appeals were made to the railway minister, Mamata Banerjee, by various political and social organisations. Both chief ministers i.e. Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’ of Uttarakhand and Mayawati of Uttar Pradesh dubbed this budget as an ‘electoral manifesto’ for West Bengal. Both expressed their concerns for the need of their state and said the UPA government had overlooked the needs as the states as they are ruled by non-Congress governments.
While Uttarakhand got one link express from Ramnagar to Haridwar, it was UP that got some nine trains including one Shatabdi Express, which will run between Agra and Jaipur. Another train, Rajya Rani Express, to run between Lucknow and Meerut will also reduce the load from Nauchandi Express.
The proposal to lay a rail line upto Amethi and doubling of Utretia-Rae Bareli was the only thing to cheer about. Both proposals got included following the VVIP status of these constituencies as they are represented by none other than Rahul and Sonia Gandhi respectively.
Leaders of various political parties and public in general are not happy about the way this budget was presented. There are five sitting MPs from Uttarakhand and all from the Indian National Congress - yet they failed to bring any big proposal for their state. People had hoped that the minister will include the work for Tanakpur-Bageshwar rail line or at least Haridwar-Karnaprayag rail project will find its mention in the budget but nothing of that sort happened, and this has disheartened the people of Uttarakhand.
In Uttar Pradesh, though Mamata Banerjee announced once again that gauge conversion of Lucknow (Aishbagh)-Sitapur-Pilibhit will be taken up in 2011-2012, the people have little hope as this is for the fifth time they have heard this project will get included as a priority with Indian railways. In 2007 too, the then railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had included this gauge conversion project but since then four years have passed with nothing happening on this route. The meter gauge service still operates on this section, which can open an alternate route to Delhi after gauge conversion.
Leaders of various political parties and public in general are not happy about the way this budget was presented. There are five sitting MPs from Uttarakhand and all from the Indian National Congress - yet they failed to bring any big proposal for their state. People had hoped that the minister will include the work for Tanakpur-Bageshwar rail line or at least Haridwar-Karnaprayag rail project will find its mention in the budget but nothing of that sort happened, and this has disheartened the people of Uttarakhand.
In Uttar Pradesh, though Mamata Banerjee announced once again that gauge conversion of Lucknow (Aishbagh)-Sitapur-Pilibhit will be taken up in 2011-2012, the people have little hope as this is for the fifth time they have heard this project will get included as a priority with Indian railways. In 2007 too, the then railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had included this gauge conversion project but since then four years have passed with nothing happening on this route. The meter gauge service still operates on this section, which can open an alternate route to Delhi after gauge conversion.
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