Title - Badal terms railway budget as a huge disappointment

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief
Minister Parkash Singh Badal on
Tuesday described the Railway
budget as a "let down and a
huge disappointment" for the
poor and middle classes in
general and for the people of the
state in particular.
"The Central government has
burdened the common man with
additional fare hikes through the
backdoor and announced no
new facilities for the poor and
middle class passengers," he
said.
Alleging the budget was
discriminatory for Punjab, Badal
said the government had gone
back on its commitment to set up
an additional integral coach
factory in the state.
Punjab's long-pending demands
on freight equalization and
extension of Mumbai and Kolkata
freight corridors to Amritsar had
been rejected, he said.
On the contrary, "the UPA
government has been liberal to
the Congress-ruled states in our
neighbourhood," Badal said,
according to a spokesman of the
Chief Minister's office.
"They have not added a single
yard to the railway footprint in
Punjab despite the minister’s
assurance in this regard a few
days ahead of the budget," he
said. "Coming on top of
unreasonable hikes in the price
of domestic consumption goods
such as LPG, the Railway budget
completes the UPA government’s
onslaught on pockets of the poor
and middle classes," Badal said.