Bihar Battle

Political bigwigs battle it out in Bihar
Statesman News ServicePatna, Feb 10: Leaders of two major players, the UPA and the NDA, remained occupied with important assignments today ~ one launched an ambitious railway project at a dusty industrial town in the west, while the other held a meeting of state Cabinet in the mustard fields of Bihar in the east. Yest, not surprisingly, both had one thing in common. They all clamoured ~ “we are the best”. Indicating that the railways’ “success story” will be among the key poll slogans of the ruling coalition at the Centre, UPA chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi, flagged off the construction work of the ambitious Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor project in Bihar today. The move rakes up memories of the 7,300-km North-South-East-West Corridor project of the previous Atal Vajpayee government ~ one of the projects that was part of the NDA's India Shining campaign launched during the 2004 LS polls. The eastern corridor, a part of Rs 37,000 crore Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) ~ one of the flagship projects of the railways is aimed at separating freight and passenger corridors. The corridor will be used exclusively for operating freight trains at a maximum permissible speed of 100 kmph with the objective to bring major reforms in freight transportation. The NDA-led by chief minister Mr Kumar, on the other hand, tried to reach out to the villagers by holding a meeting of the Cabinet in the mustard field of nondescript Barbighi village in Begusarai district today. The Cabinet that met under a tent in the village ~ perhaps for the first time in its history ~ discussed a total of 18 issues related to the welfare of the masses amid a huge crowd of local villagers surrounding the tents.