E-Paper
Mamata derails Lalu’s profit claims
Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday tore through her predecessor Lalu Prasad’s claim of record profits during his tenure, saying accounting procedures were altered to show surplus.
Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday tore through her predecessor Lalu Prasad’s claim of record profits during his tenure, saying accounting procedures were altered to show surplus.
Tabling a White Paper in Parliament, she said the railways’ performance was below par from 2004-05 to 2008-09, when Prasad was in charge.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief dismissed the document as a “black paper”, saying some ministry officials had misled Banerjee.
Changes were made in the accounting procedures to show cash surpluses, which, too, were spent, the paper said.
“There were only two accounting changes during the last five years. These have contributed significantly in inflating the figures of cash-before-surplus dividend, a new way of portraying surpluses generated, introduced in 2007-08.”
The changes inflated the figure by Rs 17,006 crore and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission would have reduced it from Rs 88, 669 crore to Rs 62,363 crore.
The paper, brought out by a consultant to study financial performance and accounting systems in railways for 2004-09, said financially 1991-96 was the best period in the last two decades. C.K. Jaffer Sharief was the minister then.
Surprisingly, the paper didn’t say anything about the NDA rule (1998-2004), when Banerjee and Nitish Kumar were the ministers, Prasad said. “They consistently went with a begging bowl when they were ministers. I turned the department into a surplus unit, they are simply jealous. My tenure was the best period and there was no dispute on my earnings,” he said.
The paper could not find faults with the Rs 90,000 crore surplus generated during his tenure, Prasad said.
The White Paper wasn’t released to target some one but to strengthen the system for the commercial, financial and operational purposes, said Banerjee, who also presented a Vision 2020 document.
The railways have set a target of converting more than 30,000 km of their routes into double or multiple lines as compared to current 18,000 km.
