Ahead of elections, the government presented its interim budget which was clearly a budget for the masses as the government has announced several relief measures for farmers, informal workers, and other marginalised communities. But this might sound funny. During the interim budget, Rs 1,000 for installation of CCTVs in trains was allocated.
According to Mid-Day, the government has allocated a sum of Rs 1,000 for installing CCTVs in trains. But the railway officials have claimed that this is a token sum normally allocated when a new budget head is opened. The Finance Ministry has been sanctioned Rs 357 crore for the installation of the CCTV system in 10,349 coaches of electrical multiple unit (EMU) local trains, mainline EMU and diesel EMU trains.
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Subhash Gupta, member of Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee told the leading daily, “Isn’t allocation of mere Rs 1,000 a joke? Such tokenism might lead to a compromise on safety which is of utmost priority on the lifeline of Mumbai.” While refuting the allegations, railway officials told the leading, it is a normal process when a new budget head is opened, that a token amount is allocated so that the project moves ahead steadily.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced a capital expenditure allocation of Rs 1.58 lakh crore for the Railways, the highest ever for the national transporter, in an effort to put its flagging revenues back on track. The budget has made a provision of Rs 584 crore for various phases of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). The interim budget presented by finance minister Piyush Goyal has allotted Rs 7,672 crore for the Central Railway in total, of which Rs 744 crore is for various transport projects. For the Western Railway, the budget has proposed an allocation of Rs 6,128 crore to execute various existing projects.