Congress, NCP criticise Narendra Modi, state government for water train bill

As a report on the Indian Railways sending a bill of Rs 4 crore for ferrying water to drought-hit Latur, first published in The Asian Age on Wednesday, began to reverberate through the national media, the opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party issued messages condemning the act and the Railways issued a denial.

“News about seeking payment for Jaldoot is completely false. The cost of operations is shared with the state government on their request,” the Railways said via its official Twitter handle.

However, Central Railways general manager S.K. Sood had earlier corroborated that a bill had in fact been sent. “We have sent the bill to the Latur district collector as per the administration’s request,” Mr Sood had said.

Senior officials in the state government had been taken by surprise when the bill was brought to their notice, and the Maharashtra government, in a meeting held last Saturday, had requested the Centre in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to waive it off.

The Congress took the opportunity to take a swipe at the PM.

“During the Lok Sabha poll, Mr Modi had said that he came from Gujarat and was a real businessman. Now the water bill sent to the state has proved his business skills. Intending to take credit for the water express, the BJP even hoisted its flag on the train as it arrived in Latur,” Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said.

He also criticised the state government, saying it is clueless about the bill, and demanded the Centre waive it off. “The Central Railway general manager even taunted the media on the issue asking if you have any stomach ache due to the bill. This is highly condemnable and also shows the mentality of the government on sensitive issues like drought,” Mr Sawant said.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik recalled that Mr Modi’s Gujarat government had sent a bill to Maharashtra for fodder three years ago when the state was facing a drought and had taken fodder from the neighbouring state.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Twitter, only said, “6 crore litres water sent for Laturkars. I thank every person toiling hard day in day out in such tough times!”