CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement. The railway budget has made it amply clear that there will hardly be any development in the railway sector. The annual plan outlay for the coming year of Rs. 11 thousand crores is dependent on market borrowings to the tune of Rs. 3668 crores. It is guaranteed that there will be a slash in the plan expenditure given the shortage of resources. In the current year Rs 735 crores has been slashed from the original plan outlay. This will be to the detriment of improving the safety standards on the railways which is a cause for major concern in view of the continuing high rate of railway accidents.

While the budget does not propose any increase in passenger fares it hopes to generate additional resources by commercial utilisation of railway assets like land and other resources. This alongwith privatisation measures is the basis for the hope for additional resource mobilisation which will prove a chimera. The deteriorating amenities for passengers and lack of safety measures cannot be reversed by the proposals presented in the budget.

With the growing gap between development plans and shrinking resources due to the cut-backs imposed by liberalisation, the railways which is a vital sector, is heading for a crisis.

CITU deplores that the basic needs of the Indian Railways have been ignored in the railway budget 2000-2001. The maladies that have crept in the system will soon overtake it. This budget is a political budget that falls to address the problems of health of the railways, both physical and financial.

The promises made are obviously in response to increasing demand for enlargement of services and facilities but there is every danger of those adding up to the existing list of unfulfilled promises.

The urgent need for massive investment for infrastructure development, improvement of signalling and safety systems, building the rolling stock, upgradation of tracks have been made by half measures, which will lead to a dangerous situation soon.

Scaling down the orders for procurement of engine, EMU’s etc will jeopardise the replenishment of these ageing vital equipments.

There is no assurance that the starving public sector wagon builders will get a major share of the 23000 wagons to be procure in this financial year.

CITU also condemns the decision to extensively off-load the railway assets like space, land, building, telecom facilities to private hands to raise funds. This is a beginning of privatisation of railways, which must be stopped forthwith.