New Delhi, Feb 26: Opposition today dubbed the Railway Budget 2003-04 as an election-oriented, soft and populist which will lead to stagnation of the railways even as it charged government with discriminating against some regions. "It is a soft election budget with nothing inspiring. It will not help in expanding the railways and making it more efficient," Congress leader Shivraj Patil said.
His party colleague P R Dasmunsi said "government will bring another supplementary budget to hike the fares as they had done last year." Stating that railways was on a "backtrack" as far as freight was concerned, he said the passenger traffic had declined by three per cent primarily due to lack of safety and security. He also criticised the railway minister for not paying tributes to those killed in rail accidents during the year.
Former railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan said there was nothing striking in the budget and added neglect of rural areas was disappointing. CPI(M) leader V Radhakrishnan described it as a highly discriminating budget and said it has not paid heed to regional demands particularly from the south.
P H Pandian, Aiadmk, said the government has not cleared any new projects for Tamil Nadu despite demands from the state.
Bureau Report