Meanwhile, Vajpayee draws line between politics, development

Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee today took the rail route to flag off his election campaign in Bihar. Laying the foundation stone for a railway...

Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee today took the rail route to flag off his election campaign in Bihar. Laying the foundation stone for a railway line that will connect Hajipur to Sugaul, the PM said connectivity via road, telecommunication and railways has ‘‘multiplied’’ in the past five years.

‘‘We are developing fast,’’ he said, adding that ‘‘some prophets of doom are denigrating the progress that we have made. They find faults. But the fault is in their minds.’’

The new railway route will connect Sugauli, Kesaria and Vaishali to other centres of Buddhist pilgrimage — Saranath, Kushinagar, Nalanda, Patna and Gaya. A large number of foreign tourists visit these centres of Buddhist significance every year.

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‘‘Last year, two crore foreign tourists visited the country and we earned Rs 3,200 crore. But this is not enough and the new railway line will increase the tourism potential of the state,’’ the PM said. He added that the state government should also pay attention to the roads.

Repeatedly stressing on the importance of the Golden Quadrilateral and the river-linking projects that will ‘‘end droughts and floods’’, Vajpayee said Indian scientists are in the process of creating history. ‘‘Our scientists want to go to the moon and they will. But before that we will bring the moon down here on the earth. Mungerilal ke sapne poora ho rahi hain,’’ he said.

CM Rabri Devi demanded that the Centre waive the state’s Rs 40,000-crore debt. ‘‘We are paying an annual interest of Rs 3,500 crore,’’ she told the PM and asked for special status to Bihar along with a development package.