This is with reference to ‘Make in India: Ball lies in govt’s court’ by Bandi Ram Prasad (February 27). The article offers several interesting and important statistics.

However, the author appears to be prescribing going back to a socialist command economy, having state monopoly in all aspects of the economy. This has been tried with disastrous consequences in this country and elsewhere. The state should limit itself to building highways, frame laws to prevent stifling of competition and rise of oligarchies. The rest should be left to the wisdom of citizens.

A democracy is incomplete without giving citizens economic freedom. The invisible hand of free markets should be allowed to play a dominant role. Private individuals driven by ambition have a great incentive in working hard. The state on the other hand is run by bureaucrats and politicians with no stake in the outcomes and hence have every incentive to be corrupt and lazy. It would, therefore, be disastrous if the state plays the role of financier, regulator, producer and consumer. The people should play that role.

Soumyakanti Chakraborty

Visakhapatnam

A chance for change

The much-awaited meeting between the BJP and the PDP to scale over differences in ideologies, predominant among them is Article 370, is important for many reasons. It is a confidence building measure and marks an approach towards creating a positive ambience to forge strong bonds between the majority and minority people of the region and allays apprehensions of undemocratic political aspirations of separatists.

It also presents an opportunity for hardliners to return to the mainstream and makes a strong case to push for sanctions against abetters of militancy, marking a significant step in fighting global terrorism.

Vikram Sundaramurthy

Chennai

Right on track

This refers to the editorial, ‘Platform for the future’ (February 27). Applying brakes on the practice of announcing politically-motivated projects, Suresh Prabhu has presented a praiseworthy and path-breaking rail budget. He has focused mainly on the much-needed, but long-ignored, modernisation of the Railways. Special measures have been proposed to take care of women and senior citizens. Much to the relief of the aam aadmi , there is no hike in passenger fare.

However, raising the period for advance booking from two months to four months serves no purpose. Due to involvement of touts, all berths are filled within minutes on the opening day and except a few, it is impossible even for the people in the long queues on the reservation counters to get a confirmed ticket. In this situation getting confirmed reservation for a journey-requirement coming up later is out of question. The need is to eliminate the role of touts in railway reservation with the help of technology.

MC Joshi

Lucknow

By moving away from the vicious chain of ‘low-passenger fare-lower safety-lowest service-high vote bank politics’ fostered by his predecessors Suresh Prabhu has presented a visionary rail Budget. If implemented equally earnestly, it could make the railways a major driver of economic growth as in China. The only jarring note is the 10-per cent hike in freight rate at a time when present rates are uncompetitive vis-à-vis road transport charges and the diesel prices have fallen considerably.

Y G Chouksey

Pune

The editorial offered a very fair discussion but one would disagree its conclusion. Today, the common man is facing several problems including financial woes. So, hiking passenger fare will be a problem.

The most important point of the Budget is the emphasis on improving existing facilities rather than adding further. The new facilities offered are good in terms of requirements of the public. The promises made are all reasonable and with a long term growth perspective. The minister should give importance in ensuring cleanliness, passenger safety and better operational and administrative efficiency.

TR Anandan

E-mail

Down to earth budget

The editorial, ‘Platform for the future’ (February 27) succinctly sums up the Railway Budget. It aims at consolidation and improvement of the financials of the country’s largest transporter. The minister did well not to announce new trains or grandiose plans. It is gratifying that one of his priorities is to make journeys in the existing trains safer and comfortable. Safer and more comfortable journeys will significantly contribute to the Railways’ kit. The Budget proposals, if implemented, will drive the economy forward. All in all, it is a down-to-earth Budget.

C G Kuriakose

Kothamangalam , Kerala

It is indeed refreshing to see a Railway Budget without an announcement of a new train and kudos to Prabhu for saying that it is first step towards depolitisation of the Railways. The way his predecessors had been announcing new trains to woo voters, it had to stop sooner than later to put in place safety and improvement in services. And if travellers see a marked change in the services and start enjoying it, then they will not mind paying extra. So let us hope that his new initiatives such as swachh rail, dedicated professional department for cleaning, toll free number for security related matters, surveillance cameras, and SMS alert services will provide the desired fruits and help the Railways earn some much needed brownie points.

The minister is not expected to turn around the finances of the Railways in a single Budget but his plan to tap capital from foreign markets and pension funds should put the Railways on the right track. The bottomline is that if his initiatives give a concrete and tangible result in the next one year, he can afford to hike passenger fares in his next Budget.

Bal Govind

Noida

The Railway Budget has many positives. The minister has chosen consolidation without announcing new trains as increasing the rolling stock alone without base infrastructure is not appropriate. The Network Rail of UK has budgeted an investment of £38 billion for five years for one-tenth of our rail length and if our railway system has to serve the growing population in future it is high time the Railways focused on investments than on populist measures. The Budget has attempted to do that.

M Raghuraman

E-mail

Any organisation to attain its stated vision needs organisational and managerial innovation as its core work culture. The shortcoming is evident for us to see. Post Independence we have added a pittance in new tracks while the number of passengers travelling has kept increasing exponentially. No new train announcement is a welcome change but what’s disappointing is no raise in passenger tariffs when the ministry is planning to spend an ambitious ₹8.5 lakh crore in the next five years. With increased efficiency, the fare hikes could have been earmarked for railway safety. When explained, people will understand the need for safety and a second hike in fares in the past ten years could have come as a relief for railway finances.

How can this unviable pricing of tickets be sustainable? The customer centric approach is fine but we need the capacity to serve these vast nations millions of travellers. Political will plays a vital role in the success of our railways. We need to combine political will with organisational and managerial innovation.

CR Arun

E-mail

Though Prabhu has announced lot new of facilities such as online booking of wheelchair, lifts and escalators for senior citizens, for differently-abled and patients at select stations and also edible food which can be booked online with IRCTC services, we have to wait and watch whether they would be implemented in the same spirit and alacrity with which these announcements have been made and also without compromising on quality!

Also keeping in mind the existing level of penetration of smartphones in India, an announcement had been made about the ease of unreserved ticket purchase through smartphones and debit cards. But still a substantial percentage of population is illiterate and ignorant of reading, writing and arithmetic.They don’t possess or know how to use smartphone or plastic cards. In some cases, there are people with loco-motor disability or those who are unable to use their hands and fingers. Though embracing technology is a progressive approach, let us not forget we need to have an inclusive approach.

TS Karthik

Chennai

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