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Rail budget merger evokes memories of colonial rule
NEW DELHI: On September 21, when the cabinet approved merging the railway and general budgets starting next fiscal, history also chugged back to 1924-25, when the
NEW DELHI: On September 21, when the cabinet approved merging the railway and general budgets starting next fiscal, history also chugged back to 1924-25, when the rulers of undivided India initiated an exercise according priority and vitality to rail development in the country.
Half a century after Independence, by the turn of the 21st century, rail budgets had themselves turned into a strategy handy for regional satraps to further their political agendas in a coalition era.
Railways ministers in the past have often been like the opening batsmen of one-dayers.
Having been the first to make policy announcements relating to an important government department at the start of the budget session of Parliament, they mostly ended up stealing the thunder of the finance minister’s budget speech that would come two days later.
Ahead of the Bihar assembly elections of 2005, Lalu Prasad — as railway minister — attempted an image makeover by projecting himself as the turnaround man and a management guru of sorts. It is quite another matter that the strategy did not yield rich political dividends in his native state.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who succeeded Prasad as the railways minister, was more successful that way. Throughout her short tenure, Banerjee was gallivanting across West Bengal, inaugurating one rail project here, another there.
Observers agree that her “rail bonanza” for the state did contribute substantially towards her party’s victory in the 2010 state elections.
Populism has come at a cost. Over Rs 2 lakh crore worth of projects are pending. On account of the “no fare hike” regime of the past, the Railways have accumulated losses totalling Rs 32,000 crore in passenger services.
“The decision to merge the railways budget with the general budget will bring an end to the ‘patronage raj’,” said KL Thapar of the Asian Institute of Transport Development.
He added that the policy reform measure would enable the state-run organisation to function in an efficient and professional manner.
