land acquisition and now she proposes land acquisition,” he said.

In Kolkata, Left leaders saw a “capitalist” trend in Banerjee’s budget. CPM’s West Bengal secretary Biman Bose said the budget initiated partial privatisation of the railway sector. “Even earlier the Congress government had planned privatisation in Railways. The present Railway Minister is following the agenda.”

The Left has opposed the idea of setting up of land bank for the use of industries. Their concern reflected in the statement of Ashok Ghosh, veteran Forward Bloc leader. “The land will be given to big business houses in the name of public-private partnership,” said Ghosh reacting to the budget proposals.

Kshiti Goswami, state PWD minister and a senior RSP leader, said there might be some relief for the poor and common people as a whole but the direction of the budget was obviously towards the big capital.

The CPM Politburo said the Railway Budget lacked fresh ideas to address the revenue fall. The minister has “failed to come up with any fresh ideas in tackling the situation and turnaround the declining revenue situation. Rather she has chosen to take recourse to the same flawed route of privatisation through PPP projects in a host of areas,” it said.