Rail Budget: A missed opportunity, no long-term vision, says AAP

​The Aam Aadmi Party termed the first rail budget of the BJP-led NDA Government as “a missed opportunity”.

“The Narendra Modi Government could have used its maiden rail budget to spell out its long-term vision for the improvement of the health of Railways, but it is unfortunately missing,” said a party release.

AAP said the people of the country had expected the new Government to lay down its roadmap to improve the efficiency of the Railways by curbing the price distortion and corruption, two major problems currently plaguing this critical sector. “But the Budget appears to be silent on addressing these long-term concerns,” it said.

The party, which has four MPs in the Lok Sabha this time, said there was nothing concrete on the improvement of safety and maintenance of the massive railway network across the country. “Nearly 2.5 lakh posts are lying vacant in the Railways and out of these 1.6 lakh posts are in departments directly concerned with the safety, but nothing has been done to fill up these posts,” it added.

However, the AAP, in principle, said did not oppose foreign direct investment in Railways, adding that there were many sensitive sectors, like the one handling the spectrum that could not be opened to foreign investors.

“The hurry to attract FDI in Railways could create a dangerous situation and the Government should hold widespread consultations before going ahead,” it added.

It also termed the thrust on implementing public-private partnership (PPP) model as a “dangerous trend”.

“The concept of PPP model so far in the country has been that the public sector bears the risk and the private sector walks away with profit, such a model can spell disaster for the Railways,” the party added.

The party said it agreed with the Rail Minister on the large number of pending projects and that the focus should be on their execution. “But in this respect, too, the Minister did not mention any roadmap,” it added.

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