Cutting across party lines, MPs from Maharashtra today met Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal to convey their grave disappointment over the Rail Budget which handed over a "raw deal" to the state.
The meeting comes a day after NCP chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Railway Budget had "totally neglected" the problems faced by 80 lakh commuters in Mumbai and it is "not acceptable".
The MPs demanded that Bansal should meet Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Pawar and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to do "justice" to the state's demands.
In a raucous meeting that lasted for 30-minutes, Bansal told the MPs that he had announced 19 new trains for the state, extension of six train services and increased the frequency of seven trains, which was the highest for any state.
The plan allocation for works in Maharashtra was pegged at Rs 1549 crore, an increase of Rs 520 crore over last year's Rs 1029 crore, he said adding 72 new services have been announced for the Mumbai suburban sector.
Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal made a brief presentation on the projects to be undertaken in the state in the rail budget that was presented to Parliament yesterday.
Among those who attended the meeting included Samir Bhujbal, Supriya Sule, Sanjiv Naik, Sanjay Dina Patil, Y P Trivedi (all NCP), Gopinath Munde, Hansraj Ahir, Dilip Gandhi, Sanjay Dhotre (all BJP), Eknath Gaikwad, Marotrao Kowase, Datta Meghe (all Cong), Subhash Wankhede, Bhawana Gawli, Ganesh Dudhgaonkar, Bhausaheb Wakchaure, Anand Paranjpe (all Shiv Sena).
