LUDHIANA, February 25: Welcoming the railway budget, Ludhiana MP and the national spokesperson of the Indian National Congress Manish Tewari today expressed his gratitude to the Railway Minister Ms Mamta Bannerjee for starting the Ludhiana-New Delhi Shatabdi train which was a long pending demand of the people of the region.
Tewari also ridiculed the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for his ignorance about his reaction to the railway budget wherein he said, Punjab had not been given anything. He asked Badal, “from your statement I can make out that you don’t consider Ludhiana as part of Punjab”. He suggested to Badal that he should come out of the negative mindset and start looking at the positive side of the things as well.
Reacting to the announcement made by the Railway Minister in her Rail Budget speech today, Tewari observed, this step will go a long way in providing lot of convenience not only to the people of Ludhiana but also those from other places in the region.
While delivering her speech Ms Bannerjee made special mention of Tewari saying, today he (Tewari) will be happy as he had been insisting on her to start the Ludhiana New Delhi Shatabdi train.
The MP said, he had to prevail upon the railway ministry while underlining that Ludhiana was the biggest city in the region with over 40 lakh population. Besides, it being the industrial city where lot of people travel daily from Delhi and back.
Tewari said, while the introduction of Ludhiana Shatabdi was his top priority, he will now focus on modernising and upgrading the facility at Ludhiana Railway Station to compete with the best international standards.