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Focus on safety, Jaitley tells Mamata

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: The former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had “misled” the country by presenting inflated profit figures and increasing passenger fares through the back door, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley alleged on Tuesday. He urged Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee to concentrate on the safety and efficiency of the Railways than venturing into “non-core” areas.

Initiating the debate on the Railway budget, Mr. Jaitley said the proposal to bring in a white paper on the finances of the Railways clearly underlined that the financial position of the so-called profitable organisation was in a mess.

“There has been jugglery of accounts in the last five years of the UPA government. There has been financial mismanagement, and the Ministry has left with no surplus as was being projected. In fact, the Minister is now forced to use reserves to fund projects,” he said.

Referring to Ms. Banerjee’s proposals, Mr. Jaitley lambasted her for venturing into “non-core” areas such as hotels, power plants, stadiums, printing presses, hospitals and the telecom industry. He asked her to focus on more important issues related to the safety and comfort of railway passengers.

Mr. Jaitley also alleged that Ms. Banerjee’s predecessor fleeced railway passengers by increasing the fares of various rail ticket components, including reservation, cancellation, clerk charges, and other surcharges, without increasing the basic fare, which was also highlighted in a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report.

The BJP leader thanked Ms. Banerjee for withdrawing some of the surcharges. He asked her to provide more concessions to passengers.

Mr. Jaitley asked Ms. Banerjee to look into the possibility of running fixed-route trains on a public-private partnership (PPP) model on a pilot basis, as being done globally.

P. Madhu of the CPI(M) criticised Ms. Banerjee for her PPP project proposals in the budget. “The Railways cannot be allowed to open up all the profitable areas of operations to private sector, as it would lead to a financial disaster in the Ministry,” he said.

Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said Uttar Pradesh should have been given more priority in the budget, keeping in mind its size and population.AIADMK’s N. Balaganga alleged that Tamil Nadu got a raw deal in the Railway budget, while the CPI(M)’s Tarini Kanta Roy termed it unrealistic and opposed the decision to close down the department’s three printing presses in West Bengal.

“West Bengal-centric”

Aarti Dhar reports:

Initiating a discussion on the Railway budget in the Lok Sabha, Ananth Kumar (BJP) alleged fudging of finances to present a wrong picture, and demanded that the actual condition of the Ministry be made public within 60 days through the White Paper as promised by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Questioning the claim of turnaround over the last five years, Mr. Kumar said it was being done through “jugglery.”

“Lacks national vision”

The BJP member said the budget stressed non-core activities and lacked a national vision as it was focussed on West Bengal.

Sarcastically congratulating the Railway Minister, Mr. Kumar said she had done well, picking holes in her predecessor Lalu Prasad’s claims on the good condition of the Railways.

Intervening in the discussion, Mr. Prasad rejected the charges of jugglery and said he was ready for any “challenge.” He said the White Paper would make everything clear. Referring to his interactions at Harvard and other foreign institutes of excellence, Mr. Prasad said had he resorted to any jugglery, it would have been detected.

Mr. Kumar’s comment that the Railway budget read more like an “election manifesto” for West Bengal evoked a sharp reaction from Ms. Banerjee, who said there was nothing wrong in it and added that she was ready to include more stations for improvement if any MP made suggestions.

Mr. Kumar said: “Don’t make Railways the East India Company. Railways belongs to entire India. It should have all-India vision and all-India operations. The budget does not have the national vision.”

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