Railways' Rs90,000-crore surplus shrinks to Rs8,361 crore in Mamata budget
10 Jul 2009
The Railways had a surplus of Rs8,361 crore as per the railway budget presented by railway minister Mamata Banerjee against the Rs90,000 crore surplus claimed by her predecessor Lalu Prasad.
Addressing the Rajya Sabha, where the JD (U) tried to shift spotlight on `white paper' to "expose Lalu Prasad," Mamata, however, said she was not targeting any party or former minister but only stating facts.
Banerjee had, on Thursday, said the Railways is left with a corpus of Rs8,361 crore after spending Rs13,600 crore on the Pay Commission award last year and Rs2,600 crore this year.
She was quick to add, "Laluji I did not speak against you."
She also promised a review of the Railway Recruitment Board procedures, with a possible 50 per cent quota for locals, in view of the populist pitches taken by rival political parties over railway exams.
She said the new non-stop (duronto) high-speed trains would start within a month while double-decker trains would materialise in a year.