Mamata's rail budget makes common man smile

The man on the street appeared happy with Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday and also a trifle relieved that she had not announced a fare hike in her rail budget.

Raju, 28-year-old daily wage labourer, was all praise for her new scheme that makes a monthly season ticket of Rs.25 available for travel up to 100 km for those in the unorganized sector with monthly incomes not exceeding Rs.1,500.

"I have to travel from one place to another as and when work comes up. So this scheme is of great use to me," said Raju, who hails from Bihar, lives in Delhi and often goes to Haryana for work.

Homemaker Sushila Sharma pointed out that at a time when everything was becoming more expensive, Banerjee had at least spared train travel.

"With the prices of everything skyrocketing, the freezing of passenger fares is a real highlight. For the middle class it will be a relief in such times," said Sharma who travels by train at least twice a year for family holidays.

People have also given a thumbs-up to Banerjee's decision to make unreserved tickets available at 5,000 post offices across the country.

"Now we will not need to go to the railway station for tickets. I can buy a ticket from a nearby post office," said 80-year-old Dayanand Arora, who lives in a Haryana village.

Sahil Makhija, a 23-year-old Delhi based professional, also welcomed the installation of 200 automatic vending machines at key stations.

"Though we have online ticketing, everybody is not comfortable using it. The automatic ticket vending machine will surely take away the rush from booking counters."

The railway minister's announcement that a doctor would be present on long distance trains was also applauded by the common man.

"Long journeys in trains are sometimes very risky for the ailing and the elderly. The presence of a doctor will surely help," said Rajesh Gupta, an east Delhi resident.

However, there were certain issues which according to people still remain to be addressed.

"I expected the fares to go down but that did not happen. But the overall budget was good. More could have been done in terms of traffic management, which again was neglected. Punctuality is a big problem and needs to be sorted out soon," said Jalaj Bansal, a teacher.

Last updated on Jul 3^rd, 2009 at 17:58 pm IST--IANS