The Railway Budget proposals for 2014-15 has evoked mixed reactions here, even as it failed to enthuse the common man for whom travelling by train is relative cheaper than by bus.
Passengers, particularly those often travelling in unreserved and sleeper coaches, were expecting the Railway Minister to bring down passenger fares due to the steep decline in the price of diesel.
The district Janata Dal (Secular) general secretary Yusuf A. Athani said that the Railway Minister failed to reflect Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Achhe Din’ (good days) remark in his proposals.
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The Minister was also silent on the new trains proposed by his predecessor D.V. Sadananda Gowda, even as he stressed on improving capacity and high density networks.
The Minister was also not clear on how he would utilise the Rs. 1,000 crore available under the Nirbhaya fund. Some commuters said that the proposals were just old wine in new bottles and it “carried forward” the proposals of his predecessors but with some ornamentations.
They added that Suresh Prabhu could have extended the benefits of the fall in prices of diesel to commuters by decreasing the fares proportionately. Interestingly, three-time Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Belagavi Suresh C. Angadi hailed the budget as revolutionary but was silent on the long-pending proposals in respect of Karnataka and Belagavi supported by him too. Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar Kore also came out with similar reaction.
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Belagavi District Congress Committee president Laxmi R. Hebbalkar described the budget as a “sleeping budget”.
The budget reflects the true colour of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s present “hi-fi” attitude where the poor had no place.
She said the least the people expected was relief in the passenger fares on account of decreased prices of diesel fuel.