The Railway Budget presented by Mamata Banerjee in Parliament today (February 24) exposes a sharp deterioration in the performance of the Indian Railways.
Far from containing any vision for the future of the Indian Railways, Mamata's Budget speech sought to conceal gross failures through misleading announcements and gimmicks aimed at next year's Assembly elections in West Bengal.
Over 120 railway accidents have taken place so far during this financial year. In this backdrop it is inexplicable how the allocations for the Railway Safety Fund has been cut by Rs. 579 crore from last year.
Moreover, Mamata has strangely tried to shift the blame for railway accidents on to rail rokos and natural disasters! This shows the Minister’s distorted perspective on the crucial aspect of railway safety.
According to the Railway Ministry’s own estimates, over 1.7 lakhs Railway posts were lying vacant in 2009, out of which nearly 90,000 were posts related to railway safety. Mamata has kept completely silent on filling up these vacancies, which can provide job opportunities to unemployed youth.
The Railway’s operating ratio (the ratio of total working expenses to the earnings – a higher ratio implies deterioration), which was 90.5% in 2008-09 has risen to 94.7% in 2009-10. Such a sharp deterioration in just one year reflects the gross mismanagement of Railway affairs by Mamata who has spent more time in Kolkata plotting against the Left Front government in cahoots with the Maoists than in Rail Bhawan in New Delhi.
Gross Traffic Receipts in 2009-10 have fallen short of the budgeted estimate by Rs. 63 crore. Moreover, plan investment in Railways also fell short of the budgeted target of 2009-10 by Rs. 497 crore.
This clearly shows that Mamata Banerjee has not been able to implement the tall promises she made in the last Budget. In this context the grandiose announcements of projects ranging from hospitals and diagnostic centres, sports academies and musuems ring a trifle hollow.
By Mamata's own admission, many of her project announcements were made without the sanction of the Planning Commission. Their implementation therefore is highly suspect. This is further borne out by the fact that for 2010-11, plan investment in Railways is budgeted to increase by only Rs. 1142 crore, which amounts to a drastic fall in plan investment in real terms.
While the Railway Minister has made tall claims on laying 1000 km of new railway lines, it is shocking that the actual plan allocations for gauge conversion, doubling of railway lines and new rolling stock like wagons and carriages have been cut in nominal terms.
This squeeze in public investment in the Railways is accompanied by an unprecedented thrust towards privatisation in all areas in the name of PPP: from modernisation of railway stations, new railway lines, freight and passenger corridors, locomotive, wagon and container manufacturing, rail axle factory, parking complexes and bottling plants.
This wholesale privatisation programme for the Railways and thus opening up the entire sector for private profiteering will be inimical to the national interest. It appears as if the entire decision-making in the Railway Ministry has been handed over to the corporate sector.
But then, given Manmohan Singh's privatisation agenda, Mamata Banerjee's Budget is of a piece.
Showing posts with label Indian Railways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indian Railways. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, July 3, 2009
Indian Railways' Surplus Evaporates; Where Has The Money Gone?
Spending five days in a week in Kolkata to fight the Left Front government rather than behind her desk in Rail Bhawan in New Delhi, Mamata Banerjee certainly did not have any time to prepare the Railway Budget, which she presented in Parliament today. Not surprisingly, her Budget does not bear her imprimatur but that of the technocrats running Indian Railways.
So once again, as in other branches of the new government, neo-liberal thinking dominated the Budget-making exercise. This will include not only developing “50 world class” railway stations but go down the line, as it were, to cover even developing Railway medical colleges along with rail hospitals on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Besides, there is the par for course tokenism like availability of 'Janata Khana', in which national and regional cuisines will figure on the menu.
Alarmingly, Mamata's first Railway Budget reflects a marked deterioration in the financial position of the Indian Railways. Lalu Prasad's Railway Budget of 2008-09 had reported a cash surplus of around Rs 23,000 crore. However, this surplus came down to Rs. 13,532 crore in this year's interim Railway Budget (February 2009) presented just before the Lok Sabha elections.
Now, in a short span of six months the surplus has come down further to just Rs 8,631 crore in the current Budget. Where has the money gone? Mamata owes an explanation for this serious deterioration of performance. Why has the cash surpluses of the Railways depleted so rapidly in such a short span of time?
To be fair, it seems the economic slowdown has adversely affected Railway revenues, especially from freight traffic. Estimates for Receipts have been revised downwards from the targets set by the interim Railway Budget presented by Lalu Prasad earlier this year, which Mamata Banerjee termed “unrealistically high” in her speech.
However, Mamata has failed to come up with any fresh ideas in tackling the situation and turnaround the declining revenue situation. Rather she has chosen to take recourse to the same flawed route of privatisation through PPP projects in a host of areas. Indeed, privatisation and outsourcing in the Railways has received a major thrust in this year’s Budget. Is this the beginning of the privatisation of Indian Railways?
Mamata's reliance on several PPP projects, from development of 50 “world class stations”, new freight and coach terminals, logistics parks, special purpose rolling stocks, perishable cargo centres etc., seems completely misplaced at a time of economic recession when private investment is hardly forthcoming.
Mamata admitted in her speech that out of Rs 3400 crore earmarked in the Annual Plan for 2009-10, for resource mobilization through PPP, “Rs 3300 crore would just not materialise”. The allocations for crucial areas like railway modernisation, safety, electrification etc are also inadequate.
Thankfully, there are some positive measures in the Railway Budget 2009-10 like no hike in passenger fares, Rs 25 monthly ticket for people earning less than Rs. 1500 per month or a special recruitment drive to fill up vacancies in railway posts for SC/STs, physically challenged, minorities and women.
We can only hope Mamata devotes more time to Indian Railways in the larger national interest and not limit herself to West Bengal politics. If the latter is more important to her, she must relinquish charge and let someone else take over. Indian Railways is too important to be left to the technocrats on the Railway Board.
Roger And Out
So once again, as in other branches of the new government, neo-liberal thinking dominated the Budget-making exercise. This will include not only developing “50 world class” railway stations but go down the line, as it were, to cover even developing Railway medical colleges along with rail hospitals on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Besides, there is the par for course tokenism like availability of 'Janata Khana', in which national and regional cuisines will figure on the menu.
Alarmingly, Mamata's first Railway Budget reflects a marked deterioration in the financial position of the Indian Railways. Lalu Prasad's Railway Budget of 2008-09 had reported a cash surplus of around Rs 23,000 crore. However, this surplus came down to Rs. 13,532 crore in this year's interim Railway Budget (February 2009) presented just before the Lok Sabha elections.
Now, in a short span of six months the surplus has come down further to just Rs 8,631 crore in the current Budget. Where has the money gone? Mamata owes an explanation for this serious deterioration of performance. Why has the cash surpluses of the Railways depleted so rapidly in such a short span of time?
To be fair, it seems the economic slowdown has adversely affected Railway revenues, especially from freight traffic. Estimates for Receipts have been revised downwards from the targets set by the interim Railway Budget presented by Lalu Prasad earlier this year, which Mamata Banerjee termed “unrealistically high” in her speech.
However, Mamata has failed to come up with any fresh ideas in tackling the situation and turnaround the declining revenue situation. Rather she has chosen to take recourse to the same flawed route of privatisation through PPP projects in a host of areas. Indeed, privatisation and outsourcing in the Railways has received a major thrust in this year’s Budget. Is this the beginning of the privatisation of Indian Railways?
Mamata's reliance on several PPP projects, from development of 50 “world class stations”, new freight and coach terminals, logistics parks, special purpose rolling stocks, perishable cargo centres etc., seems completely misplaced at a time of economic recession when private investment is hardly forthcoming.
Mamata admitted in her speech that out of Rs 3400 crore earmarked in the Annual Plan for 2009-10, for resource mobilization through PPP, “Rs 3300 crore would just not materialise”. The allocations for crucial areas like railway modernisation, safety, electrification etc are also inadequate.
Thankfully, there are some positive measures in the Railway Budget 2009-10 like no hike in passenger fares, Rs 25 monthly ticket for people earning less than Rs. 1500 per month or a special recruitment drive to fill up vacancies in railway posts for SC/STs, physically challenged, minorities and women.
We can only hope Mamata devotes more time to Indian Railways in the larger national interest and not limit herself to West Bengal politics. If the latter is more important to her, she must relinquish charge and let someone else take over. Indian Railways is too important to be left to the technocrats on the Railway Board.
Roger And Out
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