The Lok Sabha today took up the Railways Budget, 2016-17 for discussion. Initiating the discussion, K C Venugopal of Congress criticized the Budget saying it is direction-less. He said, it also fails to throw light on resource mobilisation for Railway projects. Mr Venugopal suggested that it would be a better idea if the government utilises one lakh crore rupees allocated for Bullet train project in other Railway projects. He also accused the government of not paying attention to passenger safety in trains. <br/><br/>Participating in the debate, Rakesh Singh of BJP said the government has taken care of farmers, poor and under-privileged sections of the society in the Railway Budget. He said, the operating ratio which remained at 94 per cent in the UPA regime has come down to 90 per cent which resulted in savings of 8720 crore rupees for Railways. Mr Singh also elaborated on various initiatives taken by the Ministry of Railways in the Budget. R Parthipan of AIADMK stressed the need for enhancing passenger amenities and safety in trains. The discussion remained inconclusive.

The Lok Sabha today took up the Railways Budget, 2016-17 for discussion. Initiating the discussion, K C Venugopal of Congress criticized the Budget saying it is direction-less. He said, it also fails to throw light on resource mobilisation for Railway projects. <br/><br/>Mr Venugopal suggested that it would be a better idea if the government utilises one lakh crore rupees allocated for Bullet train project in other Railway projects. He also accused the government of not paying attention to passenger safety in trains. <br/><br/>Participating in the debate, Rakesh Singh of BJP said the government has taken care of farmers, poor and under-privileged sections of the society in the Railway Budget. He said, the operating ratio which remained at 94 per cent in the UPA regime has come down to 90 per cent which resulted in savings of 8720 crore rupees for Railways. <br/><br/>Mr Singh also elaborated on various initiatives taken by the Ministry of Railways in the Budget. R Parthipan of AIADMK stressed the need for enhancing passenger amenities and safety in trains. The discussion was continuing.