New Delhi, February 26
Protests by NDA members and the election campaign did not derail the ‘Laloo Express’ from chugging relentlessly for about two hours as he presented the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha today.

Although improptu ‘Lalooisms’ were missing in the speech, the Railway Minister managed to get the point across by quoting Hindi poet Nagarjuna Baba for not raising passenger fares.

“Jaan lo bhaiya, garibon ki ek hoti jaat, usi ke hukum se hilenge ek-ek paat (let it be known that the poor people have no caste; the leaves move only on their order),” he said.

Laloo Prasad Yadav was applauded nearly two dozen times during his speech and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi walked down to him and complimented him.

The Railway Minister, however, had difficulty in reading several train names and broadband measures and fumbled on more than one occasion, giving an impression that he was reading out the speech for the first time.

The Railway Minister paused several times during the speech to have a sip of water and on one occasion, said in his characteristic swagger, “Ab paani pee lete hain.”

NDA members boycotted proceedings on the tainted ministers’ issue. Proposals by the minister were either welcomed with thumping of desks or silence prevailed.

The only protest on the Railway Budget came from Kerala MPs. Mr P.C. Thomas of the Indian Federal Democratic Party, an NDA ally, shouted that Kerala had been denied its due. Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed complained to Laloo and Power Minister P.M. Sayeed that nothing had been done for Kerala.

Chandigarh, February 26
For the north-western region comprising the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Jammu & Kashmir the budget has been a mixed one. While it disappoints as no major trains or electrification has been announced, at least three trains have been extended and will now link important cities with this part of the country.

The long awaited extension of the Trivandrum- New Delhi, Kerala Express till Chandigarh has been announced. This train was preferred over Mangla Express running between Delhi and Kochi as it would not have touched southern Kerala.

Union Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav announced three passenger trains. One of them connects Amritsar with Attari on the international border with Pakistan. Actually Punjab has been ignored in the Budget. The distance between the two places is about 25 km. Two daily passenger trains will connect Rewari in southern Haryana with Jaipur and Ajmer, respectively.

Despite the demand of its own engineers to electrify the upcoming 42 km Chandigarh-Morinda route for optimal use of the track, the Railway Ministry has not agreed to the proposal. Meanwhile 350 km of rail track will be electrified in this financial year elsewhere in the country.

However, the Minister promised that the Chandigarh-Morinda track laying will be completed in this year itself.