Minister Goyal trashes Rahul’s charge on pending work in Amethi

New Delhi:

Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday denied charges levelled by Rahul Gandhi about the lack of development work on rail tracks and stations in his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi, saying that most of the works mentioned by the Congress president have been completed.

Gandhi wrote to Goyal on August 30, listing 10 things that were to be done at railway stations in Amethi, from where he has been elected three times, and said that there was “extremely slow progress” on these.

Goyal sought details of each of 10 items mentioned in Gandhi’s letter, which included the improvement of passenger amenities at railway stations, doubling of the line, electrification, and the construction of a road over bridge. In his reply dated October 18, Goyal has said that works related to passenger amenities have been completed, and infrastructure-related work has been fast-tracked.

He added in his five-page reply that the Congress president should “visit the station and check before raising issues on the basis of misinformation.”

Apart from talking about other specifics, railways minister’s letter said that the improvement of passenger amenities works at Bani -which Gandhi mentioned was sanctioned in 2013-14 but is still in progress -- has already been completed. On the doubling work between Raebareli-amethi, Goyal, has said that there was no progress up to 2014 under the previous UPA government.

“Now the execution of this work is in full swing and it is expected that the Amethi-jais section shall be commissioned by March 2019 and the Jais-raibareli section shall be commissioned by December 2019,” Goyal said.

GANDHI LISTED 10 THINGS THAT WERE TO BE DONE AT RAILWAY STATIONS IN AMETHI