RAIL BUDGET FOOLS US, BUT STILL GOOD

The grand Indian Railways budget for the year 2008-09 was presented by Hon. Minister of Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav in the parliament on 26th February, 2008. The budget seems to be totally decided in view of the elections that are due in 2009. But, it is necessary to go through the budget carefully to really understand that Lalu Prasad has not really cut the fares or offered any thing out of the blue. He actually just got a platform to announce that he would be offering certain things which can be bargained for votes later.

Consider his lowering of fares. These fares will actually be applied only in the off season and non-popular trains. So, basically, the cut in fare is not applicable to most of the trains. The Rajdhani's and the Shatabdi's and trains between metro stations are all categorized as popular trains and hence there will be no fare cut in these trains. The middle class people living in these metros who cannot afford a plane ticket or rely on sleeper class and AC-III tier won't get any benefit. The 5% fare cut in second class doest serve any purpose because a normal ticket costs around Rs 100 and a 5% cut will mean it costs Rs 95. I know, I shouldn't be underestimating the value of Rs 5, but still, is it really going to help?

The second thing that caught my attention was Lalu announcing free suburban tickets for girls up to graduation. Minister, don't you thing that in India, Suburban trains are only used in Mumbai and the Maharashtra government already has concession in place for all students (not only girls) up to graduation level. The concession means that second class suburban pass for a month will be free. The student still has to shell out money for quarterly pass. The same is now going to be applied all over India but do students outside Mumbai actually use trains? Is the city network of trains that good as it is in Mumbai?

The next thing that really angered me was his announcement of Smart cards being introduce in Mumbai in the coming year. Mr. Lalu, it has already been done and thanks for letting us know that you are still not aware of this.

I really don't understand the meaning of garib rath's. The middle class is having access to it and not the poor man. I guess instead of having AC coaches as garib rath's and having a lower fare, he should have actually introduced Sleeper class at a lower rate. I personally dont like the name garib rath's as it is actually not ment for "garib's". We can have a number of names for these garib rath's. Also, I guess the charges that are levied for internet booking ought to be totally removed. It is saving man power and machinery of the railways when one books through the internet and gets a print out of the ticket himself.

But, even tough these points came up, I have liked the budget. Lalu has promised that by 2010 all coaches in Indian railways will be made up of stainless steel. He promised that 50 stations will have escalator and elevator facilities and that is the need of the hour. He announced that a company which was in loss 4 years back has made a profit of Rs 25K crores. His aggregate profit over 4 years has been Rs 78K crores. What he has done good here is, he has allowed the oficers to implement all programmes that they wanted without any fuss. He has not interfered in their working and hence he deserves this credit. He even alked abt food in railways not being upto the mark and thats good that he accepted faults in the railway service. The cleanliness issues in railways really need someone to address and he did it and I guess privatization is the best way out.

I feel the budget has been a balanced one even tough Lalu's attempt to fool people to a certain extent, he has offered many gains to people too. Kudos Lalu for your four years in the ministry. The Indian railways is getting a face-lift and that what is the needed and fast. I hope, the next minister of railways is as good as Lalu or better. Lets hope for the best and remember, success of railways is dependent on us as well up to a certain extent. Lets try to make the Indian Railways which employs 14lack employees, India's largest employer the ebst in the world. Many such budgets, will surely make it one.