Congress on Rail Budget: Big difference in the words and deeds of the BJP

All the Congress MLAs and the Municipal Councillors of the three MCDs, angry at the Railway Minister's decision not to roll back the hike in the passenger and freight fares in the budget, maintained its 'Halla Bol Andolan' started by the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, for the second day in succession under the leadership of DPCC president Shri Arvinder Singh, MLA and demonstrated outside the Thyagaraj Marg residence of Railway Minister Shri Sadanand Gowda and gheraoed him.

When the Railway Minister did not roll back the enhanced railway fares in his budget presented to Parliament today, the DPCC called an emergency meeting and termed the budget as directionless and anti-people. It then decided to gherao the residence of Railway Minister Sadanand Gowda at 2.30 p.m. All the elected representatives rushed from the DPCC office, Rajiv Bhawan, to the Railway Minister's residence.

Addressing the media after the demonstration, DPCC president Arvinder Singh and CLP leader Haroon Yusuf said the Union Railway Minister, dangling the promise of introducing bullet train and speed trains, was fooling the people in the name of providing relief to the poor. They said the whole Railway budget was intended to provide benefits to the Adanis and the Ambanis and through the privatization of Railways, ordinary people’s mode of transport like the Railways was being turned into provide more facilities to the rich.

They asked the BJP why it was trying to implement FDI in the Railways which it had always opposed in the past. They said there was a big difference in the words and deeds of the BJP. They said by not rolling back railway fare hikes, the BJP had once again exposed its anti-poor fang. They said the Congress will continue to hold its peaceful agitations.

Chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said the Congress workers will continue its 'Halla Bol Andolan' for a week, adding that the Congress will continue its objection to the anti-people policies of the BJP. He warned that if the police did not stop using force on the Congress workers at the direction of the Union Home Minister, the Congress will mount a wide-spread agitation in Delhi.