Rail Budget was much ado about nothing: Opposition

Describing the Railway Budget as a superficial exercise where some “cosmetic” changes had been made to give an impression of “transforming” the rail sector, the Opposition on Tuesday said that it was much ado about nothing.

Attacking the Rail Budget, NCP’s Tariq Anwar said that despite the announcements by railway minister Suresh Prabhu to bring about changes in the organisation, problems still persist.

“It is cosmetic and the problems still persists,” he said, adding that the government had increased the tariff in November before the Railway Budget. He also pointed out that when the erstwhile UPA government had hiked the fares in the middle of the year, Mr Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat chief minister, had written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Criticising the Make in India programme, RJD’s Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav said problems like security and food quality in the railways still remained unresolved and the organisation was witnessing “Back in India”.

Congress member K.H. Muniyappa said that the plans announced by Mr Prabhu sounded good, but he has not said how the projects would be executed and where will the money come from to implement them.