From PM to Nitish Kumar: Who said what on Railway Budget 2013

The Railway Budget for 2013-14 today spared passengers from any further hike in fares but raised various other charges on tickets along with freight tariff of less than 5 percent. While the Prime Minister and other Congress leaders hailed the budget, opposition parties slammed it, calling it, “Rae Bareli budget.” Here are some reactions to the Railway Budget 2013: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: Hailing the Railway Budget as “reformist and forward-looking”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has done a commendable job in meeting competing demands of improving services and controlling expenditure. “It is a reformist and forward-looking Budget which presents a realistic picture of Railway finances. The Minister for Railways has done a commendable job in meeting competing demands of improving and increasing services for commuters and controlling expenditure of his department,” he said. Mulayam Singh Yadav: The Samajwadi Party leader called the budget anti-people. “I have never seen such an anti-people budget in my political life… This is a budget for Congress… you can give new trains for Rae Bareli (Lok Sabha constituency of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi), but don’t ignore Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal.” [caption id=“attachment_640550” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Lalu Prasad Yadav. Reuters[/caption] Mayawati: The BSP supremo Mayawati expressed similar sentiments saying the rail budget was a “disappointment”. “The poor and middle classes will not benefit much from it… Fare has been hiked through backdoor,” she said. Nitish Kumar: Calling Pawan Bansal’s maiden effort a “weird” Railway budget, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked why a poor state like Bihar had been ignored. Kumar also questioned why the budget was so non-ambitious, and said it was unbelievable that the government seemed to have no targets and no money. “I have presented 5 budgets, and always searched for funds to meet targets. But unbelievable that they have the money and no targets! They have a surplus, so its an odd situation. There are many railway schemes, they should have spent money, especially when there are unfinished projects”, he said. Lalu Prasad Yadav: Former railway minister Lalu Yadav also expressed disappointment and said there’s some conspiracy in the rail budget. “Mool baat hai kii diwaliya ho gaya hai in logon ka. Sonay kii chidiya hai yeh Railways. I think some conspiracy is there so as to hand over Railways to the private sector. Mis-manage so that people say privatize it.” Jayalalithaa: “The Railway Budget places an even greater burden on the already overburdened common people through an indirect passenger fare increase by way of levy of higher fees and an increase in freight tariff which will cause an increase in prices of essential commodities. The increase in freight charges at this time will fuel inflation as it will increase the cost of commodities, especially essential, and important raw materials like food grains, cement, coal, iron ore,” she said. Yashwant Sinha: “Some people rightly said that this is Rae Bareli budget. There is nothing for Jharkhand in the budget.” P Chidambaram: “The Railway Minister has presented a very responsible, practical and implementable budget. I think after many years, he (the Minister) has candidly stated the finances of the railways… I think it is a very commendable budget.” Kapil Sibal: “I commend the Railway Minister for presenting a very practical, useful budget which will in the years to come really take care of the Railways through their own resources.”