Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has questioned the budget allocation for the railways and asked whether the money will be invested in modernization before selling it to public utilities.
Bhupesh Baghel said “Around ₹2,35,000 crore has been allocated to the railways. It’s for employees or for new hires or it’s just to modernize the railways before selling them to private companies,” according to the news agency.
The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister also called the Union Budget 2023 a “nirmam” budget and said it does not bring benefits to the youth, farmers, women, tribes or scheduled castes. “It was done purely with an eye on the upcoming elections. There is nothing in the budget for Chhattisgarh,” he added.
Ahead of the budget presentation to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, CM Baghel reiterated the demands of the people of Chhattisgarh. He said people were demanding new trains in Jagdalpur and Surguja areas and also demanded that GST and central excise for the state should be released at the earliest.
Earlier there was a separate budget for railways. But now such announcements are not made separately. We also demand that our share of GST and central excise be released at the earliest.
In the biggest push yet, the finance minister announced an outlay of around ₹ 2.4 crore on Indian Railways, which will be used in electrification and station facilities and rail lines, among others. “Indian Railways Capital Expenditure has been pegged at ₹ 2.40 lakh crore, the highest ever; 9x compared to 2013,” FM Sitharaman said in her speech.
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