A status paper on the functioning of railways, presented in the Lok Sabha today, punctured former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's tall claims of record profit and held that its performance was "below par" during his tenure.
The performance of railways was "below par" during 2004-05 to 2008-09 when the RJD chief was at the helm of affairs, the White Paper laid by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed.
"Analysis of the overall growth of railways during the period shows that the performance was below par if the normally accepted growth elasticity of 1.25 is reckoned," the report, tabled amid din, said.
Prasad was present in the House when the report was laid.
Noting that losses from passenger operation was almost Rs 14,000 crores in 2008-09, the document said a new form of presentation of accounts was started during the Lalu regime which projected a concept of cash surplus before dividend which made the Railway finances "look good".
If these presentation changes had not been done, the accumulated surplus of Rs 89,000 crores during the five-year period would come down to Rs 39,500 crores.
This reduction also includes the impact of Pay Commission arrear payments which have been taken to the years in which it actually accrued, the 70-page document said.
Seeking to give a lie to Prasad's claims about his period being the golden era of the Railways, the White Paper said the best period financially in the last 20 years was 1991-96 (when CK Jaffer Sharief was Railway Minister) and "not the last five years".