Irked over a cut in Railway Budget allocation for Odisha to the tune of Rs 186 crore, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has urged the Ministry of Railways to restore the original allocation.
Terming the cut as 'gross injustice to the in2terest of the state', Patnaik said he strongly protested this step-motherly attitude of the Railways to Odisha.
“The state of Odisha earned revenues to the extent of Rs 7500 crore in the last financial year, had projected a total demand of Rs 2345 crore for different projects for 2012-13. Against this, we received a very small budgetary allocation of Rs 723 crore as per the Railway Budget announced on March 14 this year. Now, suddenly, again the Railways have announced this reduction which will go against the interests of Odisha”, Patnaik wrote to Railways minister Mukul Roy.Since Odisha was in the midst of a strong industrialization programme and a number of industries and ports are in the pipeline, Railway projects were accordingly planned to cater to the increasing demand of industry, trade and commerce of the state, the chief minister said.
“Reduction in budgetary allocation would greatly hamper the industrialization process in the state. This would hurt the common man in so far as creation of passenger amenities at various railway stations is concerned”, he opined.