FULL TRANSCRIPT
Thank you Hon’ble Speaker Sir for allowing me to speak on Railway Budget. I thank my party also. For the first time after independence, India has dispensed with the separate Railway Budget. It has not gone down well with the railway fraternity. Communities, organisations and the activists said that Budget announced nothing that could shake off the lack of mood among the lakhs of passengers who use Indian Railway services daily. Rail is the lifeline of the common citizen.
With a heavy heart, I am very pained to say that I often travel in trains and railway station and tracks are very dirty with sticky smells. The cleanliness of the trains is very bad. The toilets are very dirty. Even the blankets which are given in the first class AC compartments are in not proper conditions.
In the Railway Budget it has been mentioned that stations will be provided with lifts and escalators; it is good. The reality is different. In many stations they do not work. It is mentioned that in next three years stations will be modified and upgraded. Arambagh and Tarakeshwar railway stations need to be upgraded.
Our Hon’ble Chief Minister and former Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee thought to promote tourism and set up a corridor among the temples of Bishnupur, Tarakeswar, Kamarpukur – which is the birthplace of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa Dev – and Arambagh to Bowaichandi (31 km as mentioned in her Railway Budget in 2010-2011) to change the social-economic scenario for the people of Arambagh. I urge the government to expedite the project and allot sufficient funds.
Sir, I request the Hon’ble Rail Minister to start the work of ROB of Kamarkundu and expedite the project and the demand of the subway of Chandanpur railway station which is the need of the hour for the farmers and people residing there.
Thank you.