Representatives of political parties, industry, trade and other fields of activity in the city expressed deep disappointment over the Railway budget presented on Friday, saying it was an ‘unjust' budget for the people of Vijayawada division. Though the city division was contributing nearly Rs. 2,000 crore of revenue per year to the Railways, there was no corresponding level of allocations in the budget for the development of the division in the best interests of the people, they rued.
TDP district president and Mylavaram MLA Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said that gross injustice was done to the Vijayawada division while Andhra Pradesh as a whole had nothing to cheer about the budget. He blamed the 33 Congress MPs from the State for failing to get sufficient and equitable allocations in the budget. Mr. Umamaheswara Rao demanded that Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal tender an apology to the people of the division for his failure to get any allocation for the division. “The MP's Lanco project stood second among power projects in the entire country. Such a success can't be seen when it comes to the interests of Vijayawada. The MP should be held responsible for this,” he said.
Andhra Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Muthavarapu Muralikrishna and secretary Ch. Ramakrishna Prasad said that like every year, there was nothing in the budget for the State and especially for Vijayawada division and for the railway station development here. They said that the proposals for new trains from Vijayawada to Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati and Secunderabad have not at all been considered in the budget. BJP State secretary Laka Vengalarao Yadav criticised the budget, saying there was no mention of the need for bringing more development at the railways station in view of the increasing needs of the travellers from here. He said that there was a need to introduce many trains from Vijayawada to various destinations but the people here had to be content with only those passing through.
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