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Mr.
speaker sir, I rise to present the budget
estimates 2006-07 for the Indian Railways; said
the Union Railway Minister Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav
in the hall of Parliament; “I sit to watch the
live budget speech” I said to my friend in the
comfort of my room.
Sadly, my effort of paying rapt attention to the
budget speech was thoroughly disturbed by the
unparliamentary acts of parliamentarians from
opposition party. Amidst the noise and uproar
Railway Minister kept reading his 31-page long
budget speech, which he kept describing as an
“aam aadmi ka budget”
Without applying any bias I must say in all
honesty that Mr. Yadav railway budget was
commendable. Three years in a row and there has
been no hike in passenger fairs, in the history
of Indian railways this has never happened
before. One of the leading national daily
rightly reported “it will go down in history” I
am sure it will.
It is commendable not only because passenger
fair has not been touched, but also because all
the attention and importance has been given to
that section of the society which we call mass.
That mass which has the limitation of income at
their end. That mass which has too much
expenditure but not the appropriate income. That
mass which for long has kept moaning and
groaning because nobody cares for them though
they form the majority of the country.
Mr railway minister and his team have shown the
sensitivity and the understanding of ground
reality while preparing this budget. In the long
run this budget will contribute a great deal in
social transformation of the country.
Cushion seats will replace the painful wooden
seats of general compartments; finally respect
has been shown to not so privilege class of the
society, who all of us needs but no one wants.
Many more Gareeb Rath’s (fully AC compartments)
will run from various stations of India at much
lower fares as compared to the fares of 3 tier
AC coaches of other trains. This endeavor will
erode the elite-ness from the society. A
society, which has always believed that “not so
privilege should remain not so privilege”
Further to this, fairs of 2nd and 1st class AC
coaches will be reduced in peak and non-peak
seasons. Good news indeed for the people who
always use to aspire traveling in those coaches
which has so far has been beyond their reach.
This effort of the ministry besides generating
revenues (from volume) will also enhance the
social status of the people.
People who never thought of traveling by train
will start traveling in general classes, general
class passengers will shift to sleeper class,
sleeper class passenger will move to
3rd AC, 3rd AC passengers will move to 2nd AC
and the 2nd AC passengers will move to 1st AC.
This cycle in the long run will bring great
social change in the society.
Some people have called it a populist budget-lok
lobhawan. Yes it is; but I believe, in India
every social policy has to be a populist policy.
Government is there to provide the services to
the people not to penalize them for using the
services in which they don’t have much of
option.
And we all should bear in mind that even though
fairs has not been increased but railway has
registered profit of 20,000 crore before
dividend to the government for the year
2006-07-. 7,000 crore up from the year 2005-06
How is it doing so? Is the team of Railway
minister using some magic wand? I think not.
They are just applying the right strategy.
What is that strategy?
Permitting private players to run container
trains, but the most important factor has been
the reduction on wagon turn around time and
through additional loading of 8-10 tonnes per
wagon. This has enabled an increase of 100 mt in
loading capacity and generation of over Rs.
5,000 cr in freight revenues. As per the railway
minister budget speech this is the foundation of
railway turnaround.
There are other similar factors which has added
to the revenue of railways and which has given
enough room to the Railway Minister to please
the populace of which he is a darling.
Those factors are:
Dynamic pricing policy for freights in peak and
non-peak season, premium and non-premium
services, for busy and non-busy routes and empty
flow direction. In non-peak season, on busy
routes and empty flow direction charges are less
than normal and for peak season, busy routes
prices would be higher then normal.
Empty flow direction freight discount scheme
Non-peak season incremental freight discount
scheme
Loyalty discount scheme
Long term freight discount scheme
Terminal incentive engine on load scheme
Freight forwarder scheme
These are some of the schemes which are
attracting the attention of private players, and
they in turn will keep piling up the coffers of
railways with cash.
Till the time this keeps happening Railway
minister has all the reason to laugh and with
him we all should because ultimately it’s the
progress of the nation and benefit will go to
its people.
So, smile please :)
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Comments: |
Gilani Ji, I do agree to your views
but are we aware of the very first
goals of organisation like Indian
Railways? I would like to mention
some of those.
1) Security - How much would you
give rating out of 10 to the
efforts, the government has made in
last 3 years? Mine is 2 out of 10.
poor.
2) How much railway track we have
laid of and how much electrification
of tracks has been done compared to
the number of trains increased?
3) How about improving commuting in
Mumbai trains? I do not think
situation has become so worst that
now nothing can be done.
4) 100s of people are getting thrown
out of running train every where,
can not we apply some technical
advancement that should not allow
opening of door in a running train?
5) Can you see any improvements in
facilities on stations?
6) What about incidents like
Samjhauta, that is the result of
sheer negligence.
List is endless, it depends which
side of coin one prefers to look.
Yes for Lalu's supporter this list
will be difficult to digest and we
all know accepting truth is always
painful. - Sujit Kumar - Feb. 27,
2007
Indeed there are many improvements
and developmental actions needed.
But it shouldn't take away that
sheen from the laudable "Railway
Budget". Its not a matter of pro-lalu
or anti-lalu rather its a matter of
accepting the truth.
Najam Gilani has rightly eulogised
the newly presented "Railway
Budget". This budget is at least
showing some way forward.
Its true that there is an urgent
requirement to improve the Bombay
sub-urban railway system. There are
steps needed to prevent the
Samjhauta Express sort of accidents
and its also a reality that huge
investment is needed to improve the
quality of train, track as well as
the conditions of platforms. But its
also a reality that the steps taken
by Lalu has been tremendous as
compared to former railway
ministers.
Take for example the case of Nitish
Kumar. Didn't rail accident happen
during his tenure? Did he do
anything to improve the platform
conditions or the train? did he do
anything to improve the Bombay
suburban railway system? -
Mohammad Hashmi - Feb. 28, 2007
After looking at P Chidambram’s
finance budget today, how about
reshuffle in cabinet by proposing
our Laluji as Finance Minister! No,
I am not joking. :) - Shiv
Shankar Sharma - Mar. 1, 2007
I
do not have to say anything on
performance of Railway minister, but
one thing which we need to remember
is that people of Bihar gave RJD
complete 15 years to do some good
work for the state. Where were all
the excellent skills of Laluji? Now
Laluji can get a lot of praise from
various sections of society for his
good railway budget, but where was
his intellectuality when he and his
wife were ruling Bihar for 15 long
years? In fact, it's not only RJD
but Congress is equally responsible
for the bad condition of Bihar.
If Laluji is so intellectual then he
should have done some good work for
the state in 15 years. 15 years is
more than enough time to bring a
state on to the development path.
Example is Mr. Chandrababu Naidu who
really changed the scenario of
Andhra Pradesh in 10 years of his
rule.
Now the present NDA govt. is doing
good work in the state. No doubt
about this. They are appointing
teachers and lecturers. They are
also upgrading all the hospitals in
the state. Road conditions have
improved in the last one year. New
power generation projects are being
planned at various locations.
Everybody knows what was the
condition of roads and power
situation when the RJD was ruling
the state. NDA has started the
ruling with a lot of planning, let's
see the functioning of NDA govt. and
also give them a chance. - Sanjay
K. Sinha - Mar. 7, 2007 |
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