Railway Budget: Nothing but old wine in a new bottle

Suresh Prabhu has offered nothing new. He, in fact, is trying to repackage some schemes initiated by the UPA government.

For example, he has announced Antyodaya Express and Deen Dayalu coaches, in memory of former Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyay. He said it will be a long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service for the common man, to be operated on dense routes. What is this other than a new name for Duronto and Garib Rath expresses started by the UPA?

Humsafar, Tejas and Uday services are also nothing but repackages of old trains and facilities. Also, the announcement of booking 7,200 tickets per minute on the IRCTC Website was implemented by the UPA three years ago.

There was no mention about improving services to passengers. He has given us no proposals to generate and increase revenues.

This is a ‘status-quoist’ budget. What was there is not changed and we are not moving an inch. Whatever proposals he is making will be at the mercy of the Private Public Partnership mode. He doesn’t have money for new rail lines and trains.

Prabhu also says that he will launch some new rail lines — for 2,000 km — and start new trains. But he is not saying where he is going to start those lines and trains.

He says five new A-Class stations will be built. Where will he build these stations? Where is the investment plan? This lack of transparency is a way to gain some political mileage whenever the government wants some.

The BJP is hailing the decision not to increase the passenger or freight fares. In fact, the Narendra Modi government increased fares twice in the past.

This time, he hasn’t increased the fares keeping in mind the upcoming elections in five States. They increased Tatkal fares by 33 per cent in December, 2015. They increased the upper class rail fares by 4 per cent in November, 2015. The Tatkal cancellation fares were also increased in the same month. Now, the BJP is boasting about not increasing fares. They may do it via the backdoor again.

More than two lakh vacancies are to be filled in the Railways. He hasn’t said a word on filling these posts. Certain posts are important for ensuring safety of passengers and rail infrastructure.

The Railway Minister assured a “Zero Accident Regime.” In 2013-14, 118 persons were injured and 54 persons were killed in rail accidents, while in 2015-16, the number of injured has gone up to 136 and those killed to 64.

The budgetary allocation for replacing aged assets has gone down from ₹5,500 crore to ₹3,200 crore while appropriating funds. This is not in the interest of passenger safety. We have 10,000 unmanned crossings all over the country. The Operating Ratio has increased to 92 per cent. This is not an indication of prudent fiscal mismanagement.

The innovation the Railway Minister is speaking about in revenue generation is nothing but PPPs. This will result in prime railway properties going to private players. Capital expenditure has been increased to ₹ 1.21 lakh crore this year. This would be a further strain on finances. In all, this Budget provides nothing to the railway passenger and to the railway network.

As told to AM Jigeesh; Mallikarjun Kharge is Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, and a former Railway Minister.

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