PM, Cabinet colleagues pat Prabhu; say Budget all-inclusive

Soon after Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu presented his second Rail Budget in the Lok Sabha, his efforts were hailed by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Every minister in the Modi Cabinet, Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states hailed Prabhu and the Rail Budget, while opposition leaders, including former Rail Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Dinesh Trivedi, dubbed the Budget as mere a ‘statement of vision.’

Dubbing the Rail Budget 2016-16 as “passenger-centric”, Modi said: “It will play an important role in the country’s rejuvenation as Budget caters to all sections of the society and stands out because it is an infrastructure-led and employment generating budget.”

“The government’s efforts to comprehensively transform the railways will gain even more momentum with this ‘development-oriented’ budget. It showcases a vision to reorganise, restructure and rejuvenate the railways with new processes, structures, norms and sources of revenue,” he said, adding “Vision 2020” in the Budget will make the Railways free from capacity constraints with higher train speed, punctuality and safety.

Taking a jibe at previous government, Modi said, “I don’t want to criticise budgets of the earlier governments, but in this Budget, investment has seen 2 1/2 time jump. In the last year, we have seen a lot of success and this Budget is an effort to further improve on this.”

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, “It was a visionary Budget. Many steps laid out will improve infrastructure.”

BJP chief Amit Shah lauded the no fare hike. He said the Budget as pro-poor as its for the second budget in a row when fares have not been hiked. 

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said this is the Budget of reforms. “For the first time, the interest of the poorest of the poor has been taken care by a Rail Minister,” he said, adding that it was overall a good Budget, will mark it 9 out of 10. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan thanked Prabhu for allocating Rs 5,000 crore to Odisha. “On the behalf of the people of Odisha, my gratitude to PM and Railway Minister for the allocation of Rs 5,000 crore for Odisha in Rail Budget.” 

MoS Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rahtore said, “Without taxing pockets, the Rail Budget has encouraged entrepreneurs, shared the concerns of common man.”