SECUNDERABAD: Only last year, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the first-of-its-kind National Railway University will come up in Secunderabad. Telangana CMK Chandrasekhar Rao had then announced providing hundreds of acres of land for the mega varsity and hailedthedecision.A year down the line, the Central government seems to have poured water to the dreams of Telangana, the project has now been moved to Vadodara, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bastion, without any hint to the people of Telangana.Many people in Hyderabad have expressed disappointment over this decision. The proposed varsity is to offer MBA, MTech and BTech courses along with a diploma in railway operations. These courses would also provide opportunities of employment for many, and this shifting of the proposedcampusfrom Telangana isseen as a lossof opportunity to join the railways for locals here.The twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad houses prestigious railway institutes, including Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications (IRISET), Centralized Training Academy for Railways Accounts (C-TARA) and Hyderabad Metro Railway, and the city was toutedtobe mostsuitedfor such a varsity, expertssaid.An inkling of the shift of the varsity first came in December last year, when the Central government toldParliament that the varsity in all probability would come up in Vadodara. The budget speech has confirmed the decision of the shift to Gujarat. A day after Jaitley made an official mention in thebudget aboutsetting up the varsity in Vadodara, angry employees of South Central Railway zone, Secunderabad, protestedthedecision.KSivakumar, divisional secretary of South Central RailwayMazdoor Union (SCRMU), said the Centre’s announcement last year about establishing a railuniversity at Secunderabad was welcomed by all stakeholders. “This year’s budget brought disappointment. It is a blow to Telangana” said Sivakumar.Besides, there were other issuesin Budget2018that angered the union members here. “The budget spoke nothing about filling up nearly 2.5 lakh vacancies — a large number of which fall under safety categories. This might take a toll on railwaysafety,” a spokesman of SCRMUsaid.Railwayemployees are also upset because the budget did not scrap the new pension scheme. SCRMU members called fixed term employment, proposed in the budget, as a means to abolish permanent jobs and replace them with casual jobs.