Pink book exposes significant reduction in allocation for TN railway projects

CHENNAI:It appears the words Tamil Nadu and Thirukkural were not the only aspects missing in the union budget presented by union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman recently. The Pink Book, an annual detailed programme published by Railway Board for works, machinery and rolling stock programmes undertaken in railways, has exposed that even funds were missing for the state, belying the claims of the BJP led union government.

The ‘belatedly’ released Pink Book has revealed significant reduction in allocation for railway projects in Tamil Nadu in the union budget. From doubling to new line projects, funds have been drastically cut down in the full budget presented after the Parliamentary polls.

Going by the pink book (copy of excerpts available with DT Next), only Rs 1,000 each has been allocated for five new railway line projects in the state, Tindivanam – Gingee - Tiruvannamalai (70kms), Erode – Palani (91.05kms), Attipattu – Puttur (88.30kms), Chennai- Cuddalore via Mahaballipuram (179.28kms) and Sriperumbudur – Guduvanchery via Avadi (60km) in the union budget.

The paltry allocation did not stop with the new line projects even. Even crucial doubling works like the Villupuram – Dindigul (with electrification), Katpadi – Villupuram (160.10kms), Salem – Karur – Dindigul (160kms) and Erode – Karur (65kms) projects have only been allocated Rs 1,000 each in the current fiscal. Not wasting any time in flagging the issue, CPIM MP and Sahitya Akademi award winning author Su Venkatesan in a message posted on his ‘X’ page said, “The Modi regime completed the budget session of the Parliament without releasing the Pink Book. They saw through the budget session without releasing the pink book because the false announcements made by them in the interim budget for the Parliamentary polls and their deception politics would have been exposed. The Modi regime which betrayed Tamil Nadu by not announcing a single project in the general budget for the state has done the same thing in railway projects.” Claiming that the allocation has been reduced from Rs 976 crore and Rs 2,214 crore to Rs 301 crore and Rs 1,928 crore for new line and doubling works respectively between the pre-poll interim budget and the post-poll full budget presented recently, Venkatesan said that the pink book has exposed the blatant injustice meted out to Southern Railway and even the funds announced for railway projects in the interim budget have also been snatched now. The CPIM MP sought to know what would the state BJP leaders like its national women’s wing president Vanathi Srinivasan MLA, who faulted him when he faulted the BJP regime earlier, say now?

Interim budgetary allocation as claimed by Venkatesan MP

Rs 100 crore allocated in interim budget for Tindivanam – Gingee - Tiruvannamalai (70kms) and Erode – Palani (91.05kms) was Rs 100 crore.

Attipattu – Puttur (88.30kms) = Rs 50 crore

Rs 25 crore each allocated for Chennai- Cuddalore via Mahaballipuram (179.28kms) and Sriperumbudur – Guduvanchery via Avadi (60km)