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Saturday, Jul 04, 2009
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‘A.P. has received a raw deal’

Chief Minister chooses not to react to the Railway budget

HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: Congress MPs from the State and the entire Opposition complained on Friday that Andhra Pradesh had been meted out a raw deal in the Railway budget for 2009-10 presented in Parliament by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Chief Minister Y. S Rajasekhara Reddy, who had expressed strong displeasure over meagre allocations to the State in the previous budgets, chose not to react this time.

Just a month ago, he had written to Ms. Banerjee expressing his ‘deep anguish’ over the neglect of the State and urged to set it right in the latest budget. He is planning to request the Centre to make amends in the supplementary budget.

The biggest disappointment for the State is the non-inclusion of the Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS) Phase –II linking the State capital to the international airport at Shamshabad as also the Centre’s refusal to locate the Integral Coach Factory at Kazipet.

Political parties across the spectrum said there was little use of sending 33 Congress MPs to the Lok Sabha, when Andhra Pradesh is not considered important by the Railways. It is understood that some 20 MPs met Ms. Banerjee in New Delhi and lodged a strong protest.

In New Delhi, Congress MPs from the State lamented that the Railway Minister had sanctioned just one new train in the budget. The MPs, who did not want to be named, said when compared to Karnataka and Kerala, what Andhra Pradesh got in terms of new trains was very poor.

Visakhapatanam-Secunderabad-Mumabi bi-weekly super fast was the only train out of 57 new trains announced by the Minister, they said. Though some new trains will be passing through A.P., they would not have any originating station in the State.

Not bad: SCR

The Chief Minister discussed the Railway budget with T. Stanley Babu, Adviser, Urban Transportation, and other senior officials. SCR officials maintained that though the budget outlay for the zone was not encouraging, it was not too bad either. They pointed out that the outlay of Rs. 3,092 crore was nearly Rs. 350 crore more than last year. Moreover, the detailed estimates had to be awaited before drawing further conclusions.

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