Lalu slams bullet train project; asks Modi to explain rationale

December 22, 2015 21:02

Amid the Centre's thrust on the ambitious bullet train project, RJD chief Lalu Prasad today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain the rationale behind pursuing an initiative that would cost close to Rs 1 lakh crore in a poor country like India.

"The PM should explain the rationale behind investing approximately Rs 1 lakh crore in a single project like bullet train in a nation where millions of people die due to poverty, illness and malnutrition and defecate in open," he asked in a two-page open letter.

Strongly disapproving of the project, former rail minister Prasad charged that farmers and the poor were being ignored at the cost of the bullet train project as the Centre had reduced budgetary allocations for major sectors like agriculture, health and education.

"What percentage of India's population will benefit from this costly project running for such a small distance?" the RJD supremo asked, adding that the Centre's priorities appeared to be misdirected and amounted to an advocacy of lopsided development.

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