Nilachakra

Railway Budget 2010, What we Lost and what we got

Jaya Jagannath,

Our country may be the only exceptionally unique nation in the world, where any regional party conditionally black mails a political party on the name of a mere fractional support to form Government and condition is in return be crowned with strategically most precious ministry in their kingdom. Results are obvious. Only the parent state from where this regional party belongs to enjoys the best benefits from that ministry and the rest of the country suffers. This defines India. To persuade vote bank for the next Bengal Polls, In a clear Bengal centric railway budget Mamta Banerjee too left no mercy in showing her step motherhood attitude towards Orissa. Railways earns from pockets of all Indians and should be distributed back equally for the benefit of all of them, but that does happen only in Ramarajya.

What is Lost :
•      Purposefully all proposed ports and industrial areas of Orissa have been kept far away from any rail connectivity. A rapidly industrializing Orissa that needs rail as essential supply lines to cater to her economy belt, a state that generates more than 6000 crores of early revenue with average per kilometer earning more than twice that of the national average, Orissa was thrown with a just a piece of bread from a Rs.41,426 crore budget in return.
•      Industry centric highest economic and potent revenue prone routes such as Khurda Road-Balangir, Talcher-Bimalagarh, Lanjigarh- Junagarh, Gopalpur-Rayagada, Badampahad-Keonjhar, Bhadrak-Dhamra, Haridaspur-Paradip-Bangiriposhi-Gorumahisani and Talcher-Sukinda railway line projects have again been deliberately ignored.
•      Only one new line has been announced for the State, against the demand for 13 new lines.
•      No action has been taken on setting up two world-class stations, seven adarsh stations, two multi-functional complexes and medical college in the State which were promised in the last budget.
•      Against a Demand of Rs 1,805 crore, the allocation has been Rs 836.64 crore with Just nine trains have been extended to Orissa as against the demand for 20 new trains.

What we got :
•      New lines: Puri-Konark, Nabarangpur-Jeypore, Gunpur-Theruballi, Phulbani-Berhampur, Raipur-Jharsuguda. Jeypore-Malkangiri.
•      Survey for new lines: Talcher-Phulbani-Lanjigarh, Junagarh-Jeypore-Malkangiri-Bhadrachal.
•      Instead of new trains, cleverly existing trains were only extended to Orissa : Kolkata, Mumbai, Guwahati and Ahmedabad. Puri-Howrah Duranto Express, Ahmedabad-Puri-Kolkata- Varanasi-Ujjain-Ahmedabad (Bharat Tirtha train), Bhubaneswar-Pune weekly express, Sambalpur- Howrah weekly express, Baripada- Shalimar Express (tri-weekly), Puri-Valsad weekly express via-Katni-Bhopal-Vadodara, Puri-Digha weekly express, Bhubaneswar- Khurda Road passenger, Naupada- Gunupur passenger (after gauge conversion) ,
•      Multi-Disciplinary Training Centre at Cuttack
•      Wagon manufacturing factory or Kalahandi.

To please Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Mamata announced water bottling plant for Amethi and a rail coach factory for Rai Bareli. Nice to see that theories of Charles Darwin also reflect in great Indian Politics too. With a hope that one day will come when there will a revolutionary evolution of unbiased honesty driven governance. Jaya Jagannath.

Regards
Team Nilachakra