By IANS,
New Delhi : A day before the presentation of the railway budget in parliament, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday said Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has created history by making the railways bankrupt.
“(For the) first time in the history of India, today the minister of railway has achieved the impossible, she actually made the railways bankrupt,” CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters.
“The expenditures are higher than the income. In the last 81 days, there have been 79 ads in news papers in West Bengal. Such exercises are one of the reason for the loss,” he said.
Asked if he expected Banerjee to present the next railway budget, in view of her interest in West Bengal politics and taking up chief minister’s job, Yechury evaded a comment saying it will be known in the coming time.
According to reports, the railways have incurred huge losses during the last year with a deficit of Rs.2,500 crore.
Railway officials said the huge expenditure was due to an increase in payments to the staff after the implementation of the sixth pay commission recommendations.