Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan, CPI State secretary Pannian Ravindran and leaders of various pro-LDF organisations have come down on the railway budget terming it a humiliation for the State.
In a statement here on Wednesday, Mr. Achuthanandan pointed out that but for the namesake three trains, Kerala had little else in the budget. He also took exception to the absence of even a reference to Kerala’s dream project, the Kanjikode railway coach factory.
The budget clearly ignored Kerala’s long-pending demands for line doubling, signal system modernisation, and introduction of new trains and coaches. Seeing all this, one could not help raising the question what the eight Ministers from the State were doing in the Union government, the Opposition Leader said.
Mr. Ravindran, in his statement, said the budget was intended only to fool the people on election eve. He asked what was the relevance of the budget announcements when promises given in earlier budgets had not been kept. There should be a strong public response to the neglect of the State, he said.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Uzhavoor Vijayan said people cutting across political lines should come together to register the State’s protest against the railway budget. The DYFI State secretariat, in another statement, said the railway budget would virtually wipe off Kerala from the country’s railway map.
