BALBIR PUNJ calls for bifurcation of top management and financial setup of Indian Railway

New Delhi / Jalandhar, March 13, 2013: Balbir Punj, Senior leader of BJP has called for a bifurcation of the top management and financial set-up of the Indian Railway, “One part should be run purely on commercial considerations and the other should be dictated by social, national & strategic concerns of the country”.

Participating in the debate of Railway budget in Rajya Sabha today, Punj said that the Railway projects with social and strategic angle should be financed out of the allocations from the general budget.

Punj said while China has expanded its railway network to the last mile at Indo China border, the Indian border areas continue to be without railway connectivity.

Absence of Railway facilities in these areas has adversely affected the economic activity. The fruits of development too have not reached the people of these difficult areas in full measure. This in turn has resulted in their alienation from rest of the country. In case of hostilities between India and China, our armed forces would surely be at great disadvantage compared to the Chinese who would have the benefit of their railways reaching them supplies close to the possible war theatres.

Punj said that the Union Government must make sufficient allocation from the general budget, during the current and the next five year plan period, to initiate projects to connect all the remote areas of the country with the main land.

Punj said that the Railway budget had provided one more opportunity to the UPA regime to put the railways back on the rails, but unfortunately it has been lost. Accusing the Railway Minister of presenting a ‘cut and paste’ budget, he said the budget speech lacked vision and any original ideas which could restore Railways back to health.

He said there were three things common in all the railway budgets which were presented during the tenure of the UPA I and UPA II.

Elaborating this point and giving examples, Punj said,  one, all the Railway budgets had promises galore, second all the budgets made announcement of opening of several new organisations and launching of new projects. And third, budget speeches of successive Ministers seldom made any mention of the promises and announcements, made in the previous years.

Punj accused the Railway Minister of claiming credit for five schemes which were announced by his predecessors. There are;

• Internet facility timing extension for ticket seekers was announced in June 2010 by Mamata Banerjee
• Facility for booking tickets on mobile phones was announced by Lalu Prasad in 2008-09
• SMS alerts on reservation status through code 139 was announced by Mamata Banerjee in 2009-10
• Next Gen e-ticketing reservation system was sanctioned in 2012-13 by then rail Minister Mukul Roy.
• Electronic display boards in trains for passengers was announced by Lalu Prasad in 2008-09

Punj said the cut in Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) would adversely affect the quality of services rendered by the railways and also the safety of passengers.

The allocations made under the said category are to be used in repairing old bridges, tracks and replacement of out dated equipments. He said the funds allocation for signals and communication net work have been cut by Rs. 953 crores. The funds available for track renewal have been reduced by 661 crores and for repairing of bridges by 124 crores. The allocation for traffic felicitations slashed by Rs. 120 crores. All these reductions in allocation would adversely affect the safety of Railway network and passengers, he added.

Raising the issue of tragic death of Kumbh pilgrims at Allahabad Railway station, Punj held the Railways responsible for the tragedy and said those who lost their lives were not victims of an accident but of murder.

Punj asked the Railway minister whether he had visited Allahabad prior to the tragedy to take stock of the arrangement made by the Railways for Kumbh or not? In case the Minister had not, he asked why?

Analyzing the Railway finances, Punj condemned the hike in freight  rates by 5.8 per cent. He said the Railways have increased freight rates 450 times since 2001. In 2001, the Railways, he said, had 60 per cent share in the transportation of goods. And this stood reduced to mere 30 per cent now. The hike in freight rates would have cascading inflationary effect on the economy. As a result, prices of several commodities such as steel, coal, cement and salt would go up further.

India, Punj said, had 53000 kms of Railway track at the time of independence. In the last 65 years, the country has added merely 13000 of railway lines, i.e. 200 km per year. In contrast China has added more than 70,000 kms of railway lines during the same period.