Rly Budget is disappointing for AP: Dattatreyya

Former Minister of State for Railways and BJP senior leader Bandaru Dattatreyya described the Railway Budget presented by Pawan Kumar Bansal in the Parliament on Tuesday as disappointing and anti-people.

Talking to reporters here, Dattatreyya said that a special fund of Rs 27,000 crore was given to the Railways while Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. He demanded that the Centre gives a special fund of Rs 25,000 crore to the railways. He said although the Centre did not increase the tariff openly, it had imposed surcharges on commuters while burdening them.

Dattatreyya said that Andhra Pradesh did not gain anything from the budget although the State had nine representatives in the Union Cabinet and 33 Congress MPs hail from the State. He asked Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to give an explanation on this issue. He said of 67 Express trains, the State got only two new trains. Further, Andhra Pradesh did not get its due share in the Railway Budget.