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#RailBudget: BJP Traps Congress In Its Own Web

The Congress party, after its Leader of Opposition mess, is still not able to understand that it is being caught by BJP in its own web. It continues to embarrass itself in front of the general public.

While presenting the first Rail Budget of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government, rail minister Sadananda Gowda came across as a reformist who is also a realist. Not only Gowda presented a non-populist budget, he took great care in acknowledging the problematic areas and the solution part for the same.

The budget was full of points which were consumer friendly and will enhance the experience of travelling in a train. No new projects were started as there are already many projects pending and the cash-strapped railways needs to be revived first before starting new work on it.

The important points which will help consumers were:

  1. Regular hygiene check of toilets and catering services. Ready to eat meals and third party checking to be introduced. Bio-toilets in trains to mitigate direct discharge of human waste on tracks and platform.
  2. Sufficient water supply at stations and installation of ROs for the same.
  3. Escalators and lifts, battery-operated cars at all stations for the elderly. 
  4. Online booking facilities for railway retiring rooms.
  5. E-ticketing platforms to be improved to the level that 7,000 tickets can be booked in a minute, over and above the 2000 tickets now.
  6. Severe action against contractors, including cancelation of contracts, in case of major complaints related to hygiene.
  7. Emphasis on cleanliness at the stations and in trains. Increase in Budget allocation by 40% over last year’s Budget. Installation of CCTV cameras and introduction of all-India helplines for the same.
  8. Office on wheels: For business travellers, office on wheels and wi-fi support in select trains.
  9. Recruitment of 4000 women constables and 17000 male officers in RPF to improve safety at train stations.
  10. The government would also allow internships for engineering and management students to improve innovations and services.
  11. Automatic closing doors in Shatabdis and Mumbai locals as pilot projects to avert accidents.
  12. Mechanised laundry to ensure quality of blankets and other furnishings is provided to AC passengers.
  13. Railways to go paperless in 5 years; stations to provide digital reservation charts.

In addition to that, five new Jansadharan trains have been introduced along with five premium trains, six AC express, 27 express train, eight passenger trains, two MEMU and five DMU trains.

Presenting the Railway Budget in the Parliament today, rail minister informed the house that of the 99 projects taken up in 10 years costing Rs 60,000 crore, only one was completed.

Gowda informed the house that the focus of the subsequent rail ministers in the UPA government has been on launching new projects and not completing them. He also pointed out that in the last 30 years as many as 676 projects were sanctioned worth Rs 1,57,883 crore. Of these, only 317 projects could be completed and 359 projects remain to be completed.

Even after such grave revelation, the Congress party leaders did not shy from issuing silly statements on the Rail Budget presented by him.

While Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi termed the rail budged “anti-poor”, “disappointing” and one that “lacks vision”, another Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia called it an “FDI and PPP (public private partnership) budget”. Former Railway minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal said that the government had not come up with any new idea and that “they seem to be accusing the previous government of wasting revenue.”

Going a step ahead, the Delhi Congress reached the house of rail minister and created ruckus. They tried to stop Gowda’s car and one leader – Mukesh Sharma – stood on the name plate of the minister.

People even made fun of him on micro blogging site twitter:

 

 

 

 

The Congress party, after its Leader of Opposition mess, is still not able to understand that it is being caught by BJP in its own web. It continues to embarrass itself in front of the general public.

On July 10, finance minister Arun Jaitly will be presenting the general budget. We are hoping of another drama from Congress.

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