It's a 'derailed' budget, says Siddaramaiah

 Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday slammed the railway budget for not announcing new projects for Karnataka and not reducing train fares.

Describing it as a “derailed” budget, he said people were disappointed that the fares were not reduced. The Railway Ministry has saved an estimated Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore on account of sliding oil prices in the international market. It was expected that the government would pass on the benefit to the people, he said.

‘No new projects’

The State government recently reduced the fares of public transport buses following a decrease in the fuel prices. The Centre should have done the same with the train fares, he said.

The railway minister has failed to announce new projects and trains. It is not a big achievement to say that the ongoing projects will be completed.

“It is okay to promise modernisation of stations and better services to the passengers. What will they (the Centre) achieve without sanctioning new trains and not reducing the fares?” he asked.

The State government had sought new trains between Gadag-Wadi, Davangere- Tumakuru, Hosapete- Hubballi and Tumakuru- Arsikere. Besides, about 50 per cent of the 24 new trains announced by the then Railway Minister D V Sadananda Gowda had not started functioning, Siddaramaiah said.

There is no mention of the proposed high-speed train between Bengaluru and Mysuru in the budget, he added.

State not benefited: HDK

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy said the State had not benefited from the railway budget. The Narendra Modi government has failed to keep its promise of bringing in changes. The subsequent governments in the past have neglected Karnataka as far as railways is concerned and the trend has continued now, he said.

Karnataka Congress unit president G Parameshwara, who also criticised the Centre for not announcing new trains to the State, called upon the members of Parliament cutting across party affiliations to mount pressure on the Centre to allocate more funds to Karnataka.