IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, Sep 13: Former chief justice of Delhi High Court Justice Rajindar Sachar has strongly condemned the idea of bullet train at a time when over 200 million people are living below poverty line in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe are scheduled to lay foundations stone for bullet train from Ahmedabad to Mumbai at a cost of Rs. 1.10 lakh crores on September 15. As per media reports, the fare could be around two times the existing A/C first class fare or almost the same as airfare of over Rs. 3000 – 3500/-.
“According to World Bank report, India has 224 million living below the international poverty line of around Rs. 120 a day. Modi’s bullet train venture is a cruel joke and ridicules on the poor of India,” said Justice Sachar, who is also former president of People’s Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL), in a stamen on Wednesday.
“I feel that this calls for political parties, and trade unions, to register their protest at the site of inauguration on September 15th, 2017,” he said.
The project is expected to be completed by December, 2023. “Modi, whose term expires by mid 2019, has no legal or moral justification to bind the next government,” he said.
