MADURAI: Condemning the Union government for releasing a consolidated budget statement of Southern Railway instead of the pink book, Madurai MP Su Venkatesan on Wednesday said that the document made available lacked many information such as fund allocation for railway projects. The BJP-led government merged the railway budget with the finance budget, thereby reducing its significance, he added.
In a statement, the MP said, "The consolidated budget statements lacked information such as project cost, fund allocation for projects and others, which were part of the pink book. The information on fund allocation is important to know the progress of a project so that constructive criticism can be placed if lapses arise."
Highlighting a few “shortcomings” of the budget statement, the MP said the Avadi-Sriperumbudur-Irungattukottai rail route has been removed from the ‘budget allocation’ category and included in ‘survey’ category. Likewise the doubling line projects -- Katpadi -Villupuram; Salem- Dindigul; and Erode- Karur – have been slotted in the ‘survey’ category from ‘budget allocation’ category.
Further the details of allocation for projects such as those in the Erode- Palani and Morappur -Dharmapuri sections were not provided. "This is not only a sad state of affairs for Tamil Nadu but also for other states," he said.