The Hindu : Front Page : BJP terms railway budget disappointing; Left opposes role for private players

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

BJP terms railway budget disappointing; Left opposes role for private players

Special Correspondent

Congress hails it as positive and growth-oriented exercise

Polit Bureau welcomes cut in passenger fares
It did not look like Lalu’s budget: Dasgupta

NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Tuesday gave a mixed reaction to the Railway budget 2008-09. The main Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) described it as “very disappointing” while the Congress hailed it as being “people-friendly, growth-oriented and extremely positive.”

The main objection of the Left parties was that private players were going to be involved in a big way as the budget promised huge concessions to the private sector.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau said the party was opposed to the privatisation measures announced in the budget and demanded that they should not be taken forward.

It said that a proposal to hand over major railway stations in New Delhi, Mumbai, Patna and Secunderabad to private players for development has been made in the budget.

Private players were also going to be involved in setting up diesel and electric locomotive and coach factories. Outsourcing and privatisation of on-board cleaning in superfast mail and express trains were also announced.

In a statement here, the Polit Bureau welcomed the reduction in passenger fares but said the reduction in second class fares up to Rs. 50 by Re. 1 was only “tokenism.” Cut in freight rates for petrol and diesel by five per cent was a correct step, it said.

The party also described as a “positive step” the appointment of licensed porters as gagmen and other Group-D posts. However, it wanted more initiatives to fill the vacancies in the Railways numbering over 1.5 lakh and also absorption of the contract workers.

The CPI (M) said States have faced discrimination, particularly the north-eastern States and Jammu and Kashmir, which was bound to give rise to discontent. The targets set for 2008-09 for new lines, gauge conversion, doubling and electrification were too low given the substantial financial resources available.

Similarly, the outlays and targets set for enhancing safety and security in the Railways have not matched the claims made in the Minister’s speech. “There is no room for complacency on this count given the still high number of railway accidents and Railways becoming a target of terrorist attacks,” the Polit Bureau said.

Welcoming the enhanced production targets for locos and wagons, it said that the purchase order for these have to be evenly distributed among the public sector wagon and loco manufacturing units based in different States.

The party said that creditable rise in the cash surplus of the Railways to Rs. 25,000 crore in 2007-08 and an increase in the operating ratio to 76 per cent provided the Minister with the opportunity to usher in a massive expansion of railway infrastructure, improvement in the railway services, safety and security and provide relief to passengers and pass on some of the benefits of increased revenues to the railway workers.

“While the attempts to utilise these opportunities have been half-hearted at best, the Railway Minister has continued with the disturbing drive towards privatisation of container trains and depots, outsourcing of Railway services and privatisation of railway property in the name of Private-Public-Partnerships (PPP),” the CPI(M) said.

The party was critical of the move to build 40 new privately controlled container depots in the coming year, saying the increase in public investment in container trains and depots was insignificant as the approach was to hand over the profitable container business to the private corporate sector.

Gurudas Dasgupta and D. Raja of the Communist Partyh of India (CPI) said the budget was a “mixed bag” and welcomed new concessions announced for women and students. Mr. Dasgupta said that West Bengal has been given a “step-motherly treatment” in the budget. While slamming the Minister for opening the doors to privatisation, Mr. Dasgupta said it did not look like Mr. Prasad’s budget. Mr. Raja said that regional balance should have been maintained and added that most distressing feature was that it favoured privatisation of railway operations.

Describing it as “very disappointing,” the Deputy Leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said that MPs from different States staged a walk-out during presentation of the budget. Without giving any specifics, he alleged that Mr. Prasad made announcements every year on new trains but a majority of them do not start operation.

Mr. Malhotra claimed that not one unmanned crossing had been converted into a manned crossing over the last one year. He said that incidents of crime in trains had been on the rise and there was lack of cleanliness in stations and trains.

Asked about concessions to students and women, the BJP leader said that it was a “small mercy” shown by the Minister. Though the Tatkal scheme was introduced during the NDA regime, Mr. Malhotra said that it had become a ploy to rake in extra money.

Welcoming the proposals in the budget, the Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said the focus was on “aam aadmi” [common man].

Describing the budget as “extremely positive,” she said that fares have been reduced and travel made much easier. She said that the Minister had employed “innovative and modern” methods to increase earnings and provide better service to passengers.

The CPI (Marxist-Leninst) Liberation feared that the budget would further strengthen the hold of private operators.

In a statement, the party was critical of the privatisation of railways which, it claimed, has continued with so many main and subsidiary tasks going silently into the hands of private operators albeit through the backdoor, making railways more costly for the passengers.

Rail Budget 2008-09

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page