Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said the voice of Bathinda had been heard after a decade at the centre with the Union rail minister announcing a New Delhi – Bathinda Shatabdi express in the rail budget.In a statement here, the Bathinda mp said “I am thankful to Railway minister Sadananda Gowda for not only acceding to my request for a bi weekly Shatabdi train from Bathinda to Delhi but also for announcement of four more new trains to Punjab. “Never before has Punjab’s name been mentioned so many times while unveiling the Rail budget”, she said adding it was unfortunate that Punjab had to wait for a full ten years for an NDA government before its just demands for new trains was met.
Badal said the rail budget was a reflection on not only the manner in which politics had been set aside for the first time to allocate new projects on a need basis, but also for the first ever genuine attempt in a decade to reform and restructure the behemoth organisation. “The NDA government has come out with a forward looking budget which looks into issues like starting Bullet and tourist trains, setting up of a railway university, ultra sonic system to detect problems in track, introduction of wifi services, cctv coverage to monitor cleanliness activities and many more issues. The railways is on the threshold of becoming a truly professional organisation again”, she added while congratulating Railway minister Sadananda Gowda for coming out with a progressive and balanced budget keeping in view the needs of all regions”.