The vote-on-account on Railways, which was supposed to help the Congress ahead of the elections, failed to impress the political circles.

Mallikarjun Kharge faced criticism from the Opposition benches for not focussing on the ‘safety and security’ of passengers. The treasury benches were also cold in their response to the interim budget.

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said Kharge presented a ‘no’ budget. Party Spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said a BJP Government will come up with a better rail budget in July.

“Passengers were expecting some measures to improve safety and security. But there is not a single suggestion on this aspect,” Javadekar said.

The Trinamool Congress and the Left parties said a lame-duck Government is not supposed to make a full budget.

“He (Kharge) should have elaborated the measures the Centre had taken last year to save the Railways. But here, the thrust is on the public-private partnership projects. PPP in Indian Railways has not succeeded. The Government’s effort is to reduce the cross subsidy. This means that freight and passenger fares are set to be increased by linking it with the cost of operation,” said the CPI(M) leader in the Lok Sabha, Basudeb Acharia. Acharia, a former chairman of the standing committee on Railways, said there was no word on the 2.5-lakh vacancies in the Railways. He said the proposed FDI in the Railways will benefit private multinationals.

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