Rail Budget brings not much cheer for Jharkhand

Vijay Deo Jha Ranchi RANCHI Wednesday, February 27, 2008 The Pioneer

Union Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav may claim 'Chak De rail' for his Rail Budget 2008, which he presented in the Parliament on Tuesday, but the people of Jharkhand have nothing to cheer up.The general mood among the people is that Jharkhand is not in the good books of Yadav. The Rail Budget, a basket of comfort, Yadav loves to say, contained nothing that could cheer or give comfort to the people of the State.Out of the 10 new Garib Raths, 50 new trains, extension of 16 trains and 11 other trains whose frequency were raised, the State has to remain contented with a few. The State has got only two new trains including the Garib Rath scheduled to run between Ranchi and Delhi thrice a week and the Ranchi-Chopan Express besides an increase in the frequency of the Ranchi-Bhagalpur Varanchal Express and extension of 8611 upto Sambhalpur. However, Yadav tried to rub balm on the injured feelings of the people by announcing a Railway hospital in Ranchi.But the people termed the Budget as unsatisfactory and anti-Jharkhand since their demand for new trains for Pune, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat and Chennai were not considered. Even the State RJD leaders find it tough to convince the people.Union Minister of State for Food Processing Subodh Kant Sahai termed the Budget satisfactory but accepted that the State was not given a fair share and also no word came on the Ranchi-Hazaribagh dream project. While accepting that the State was not given its due share and new initiative should have been taken to the speedy disposal of projects, Lok Sabha member Bhubaneshwar Prasad Mehta has termed the Budget as historic as Jharkhand was taken seriously for the first time in the last four Rail Budgets. But he declined to say anything when he was reminded that the same Lalu Prasad happened to be the Rail Minister in those days also. The MPs of the State have a last chance to correct this anomaly on March 10 when the Parliament will discuss the Rail Budget.The BJP has already taken cudgel against Yadav and threatened to start an agitation if the demands for new trains were not fulfiled. Rajya Sabha Member Ajay Maru said it was unfortunate that the State was not provided with any train and it was surprising to note that a big State like Jharkhand was allotted only two trains.He also doubted the existing railway projects worth 1,950 crore in the State would be abandoned for want of funds. He contested the statement of Yadav that the State Government did not come forward to run the project as Jharkhand had already provided 750 crore for the six projects.While no new projects were announced for the State it was paining to note that no substantive assurance was given in regard to the six major railway projects running in the State including Ranchi-Hazaribagh, Koderma-Ranchi, Giridish-Koderma, Koderma-Tilaya and Deoghar-Banka Sultanganj. Although, he assured that Deogadh-Dumka and Ghormara-Dumka would be completed very soon but the State failed to garner any new project. Also budget has allocated Rs 1,500 crore to develop Patna and Secunderabad junctions into world class junctions and major stations of the State has not been included.Terming it as the most unfortunate day for Jharkhand, senior BJP leader Yasvant Sinha lambasted Yadav for deliberately killing the Ranchi-Hazaribagh rail line and other projects. He wanted to know the fate of some 14 rail bridges which have not been completed even after eight years. "He will have a tough time to explain this to the people in the next election," he said.Opposition leaders of the State blamed the MPs of Jharkhand belonging to the UPA Government, who remained mute spectators during the entire Budget speech and did not walkout as their counterparts from Gujarat did. There is no NDA Government at the Centre and they have no pretext to blame NDA for not giving fair share to the State. Now Jharkhand would have to wait for the final exit of Lalu Prasad Yadav to get its share, they said.

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