Leader of the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha and former Union Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge said on Wednesday that the finances of the Railways were not as bad being projected by the NDA government, stressing the need for increasing the Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) to the Railways.
Addressing a press conference in Kalaburagi, Mr. Kharge, who had held the Railway portfolio in the previous UPA government, said that the present government wanted Railways to find its resources for all the ongoing and new projects without extending the GBS, unlike the previous UPA government.
“Railways is a public utility service and you cannot expect it (railways) to find funds for all its projects… the union government should be liberal in providing GBS to take further the development works initiated by the Railways”, Mr. Kharge said.
Allowing the private investments would only result in transferring the burden on the travelling public and goods traffic and this was not augur well for economy, Mr. Kharge said.
