NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India on Saturday described the Railway Budget as "disappointing if not highly distressing" and said it discriminated against the people in West Bengal, Kerala, the North-East and Andhra Pradesh.

"We urge upon the Railway Minister to suitably amend the budget taking into consideration the views expressed by the Members of Parliament in the course of the discussion," the party national executive, currently in session, said in a resolution.

It said that while the Railways had improved and posted higher profits, the budget seeks to introduce more trains, promised extension of a number of other trains, but the thrust appeared to be in the direction of privatisation, outsourcing, downsizing and catering mainly to the needs of the affluent and the middleclass.

"The budget accentuates regional imbalance... the introduction of Garib Rath makes a mockery of extending better railway services to the poor people, because none of the poor can ever avail of the so-called Garib Rath because of the high cost."

What was needed for the poor and working masses was improvement in local train service. The conversion of 200 trains to superfast category should lead to higher cost for the regular travellers who would have to pay extra fare meant for the superfast trains.

It said the freight corridor policy was discriminatory since it did not touch West Bengal, and could not reap the benefit of Kolkata port. "It is perplexing, therefore, that the Eastern corridor stops at Sonnagar instead of proceeding to Kolkata."

It said another disquieting feature was the private-public partnership, and there was a clear move to reduce manpower. The resolution noted that the Railway Minister admitted that the workforce was being reduced by three lakh while he planned to recruit only 6,000 people.

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