Hyderabad, Feb 26 (IANS) While people in Andhra Pradesh hailed the railway budget 2007-08 Monday for reducing passenger fares, the opposition parties said the state had been neglected once again.
The Congress government was yet to react but the opposition parties criticised Railway Minister Lalu Prasad for neglecting the state. The government had earlier criticised the three budgets presented by him.
The budget proposes only one new train for the state, Garib Rath, which will run thrice a week between Secunderabad and Yeshwantpur. Also, survey works for a couple of new railway lines or gauge conversion have been promised.
"This is an anti-development railway budget," said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president and former union minister of state for railways Bandaru Dattatreya. He said Lalu Prasad had totally ignored Andhra Pradesh.
Dattatreya said it was unfortunate that no allocation was made for expansion of the Multi-Modal Transport System in Hyderabad and that except one Garib Rath no new trains were announced for the state.
Leader of Opposition and Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu said the state had got a raw deal despite the fact that the union cabinet has eight ministers from the state.
"Mr Lalu Prasad has forgotten that he is railway minister for the entire country," said Ch. Venkat Reddy, the Communist Party of India leader in the state assembly.
The common man, however, hailed the budget as pro-poor.
"For the first time in many years we have received the news of a cut in fares," said G. Raju, a passenger at the Nampally railway station here.
"He has made many announcements to improve passenger amenities. We hope the announcements are translated into reality," said another passenger D. Varaprasad.