Title - Railway budget a huge disappointment: Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today 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 equalisation 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 governments onslaught on pockets of the poor and middle classes," Badal said.