Oppn alleges lack of facilities in Railways

Opposition parties today alleged lack of facilities in Railways and demanded that the measures announced by previous Railway Ministers, including starting new rail lines and trains, be fulfilled at the earliest with focus on safety.
During the resumed discussion on Rail Budget in Rajya Sabha, some members said Railways does not have resources to start new projects and improve facilities for the common man and suggested privatisation as the sole alternative.
However, those from the Left parties said the PPP model has failed to yield the desired results and should not be undertaken.
Some members, including those from Samajwadi Party and NCP, lauded Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu for not announcing any new measures and instead focussing on fulfilling promises made in previous Rail budgets.

Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) lauded Rail Minister for focussing on fulfilling past promises held up for years.
He said Railways was important for the common man perspective as a total of 82 crore people travel by trains annually and seven crore travel every month.

"There has been a tradition to announce new trains and lines in every budget by previous Rail ministers, many of which have never been accomplished. This budget for the first time has focussed on fulfilling unaccomplished tasks which is a very good thing and needs to be appreciated," he said.
Demanding more rail network and trains for Uttar Pradesh, Yadav asked the Rail Minister to help connect every district of the largest state in the country as many continued to remain unconnected.

"I hope more railway lines will be completed soon as cost overruns take place otherwise. Uttar Pradesh is the biggest state, as it has the largest railway network of 15,000 kms but still many parts are not connected by rail. Railway is a cheap mode of transport for the poor and it should be strengthened.
"Increasing Rail fares is the only alternative to raise resources for providing more facilities. India despite having the largest rail network has very poor average speed of 50 kms per hour. Stations are in bad shape and need improvement," he said.
Yadav also suggested that catering should be given to private hands and improved systems for operating in fog be brought in as in other parts of the world.

Coordination between government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force also should be improved, he said.
Bimla Kashyap Sood (BJP), while lauding the new
initiatives taken by Prabhu, wanted Railway services to be expanded in Himachal Pradesh, a tourist state which she compared with Switzerland.
She said this would help tourists and also promote religious tourism as Himachal has a number of religious places.
"The Railways under the Modi government is moving forward on the path of development, but one has to wait to bear fruit. I want to tell the opposition this," she said.
Bashistha Narain Singh (JD-U) said it is good that bullet trains are coming to India but added that it will not help the common man, on which Railways should focus instead.

"Till central government comes out openly in support of Railways, no one can stop its privatisation. Today, it is on the verge of dying and is taking loans for running it and the future generations will have to pay for the loans taken now. Government should come out with a modernisation plan," he said.
"Railways has failed on the four basic tenets of safety, security, punctuality and cleanliness," he said.
Singh said the Railway Minister should come out with a public statement stating clearly how much funds are required for fulfilling the promises made by previous Rail ministers and the schemes announced by them should be fulfilled, especially those pertaining to Bihar.

Ritabrata Banerjee (CPI-M) opposed privatisation of Railways saying the PPP model has failed the world over.
He said Railways is starting the year with a Rs 50,000 crore deficit. He also referred to the 3 lakh vacancies in safety and maintenance department.
Dilip Kumar Tirkey (BJD) urged the government to complete
the pending railway projects in Odisha as well as expansion of the rail network in some of the places in the state.
He sought quota for retired MPs and re-introduction of concession on tickets for children below 12 years.
Outlining deficiencies in the railways, Tiruchi Siva (DMK) said the Rail Budget has become a routine exercise as the government assures more facilities but does nothing on the ground.

The government did not hike fares this time but it charges safety and development surcharge, he said.
Overhauling of engines and coaches are not properly done due to lack of supply of necessary equipment, he added.
Expressing concern over lower operating margins, Siva said the minister has to establish accountability at all levels. The Railway Board should listen to employees.
Attacking the government for its "incapability" in running the Railways smoothly, Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu (Cong) expressed concern over falling revenue of freight and passenger trains.
The railways can never be revived without improving its operating margin, he said, emphasising the need to increase revenue from freight services.

He also wanted the government to increase the frequency of Express trains and Rajdhani trains to places like Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune from Jamshedpur and Ranchi.
In his maiden speech, Shambhuprasad Tundiya (BJP) said the rail budget has taken care of women, elderly, disabled and students and provided good provisions for them.
He demanded that some 300-odd kms, which lie in Bombay and Ratlam junction, be included in Gujarat division and also make Sabarmati station as terminal station.
D Raja (CPI) said the Rail Budget proposals are long-term and would take time to implement. He, however, opposed the entry of private companies in the sector.

He asked wanted to know the reasons for delay in implementing the old proposals in Tamil Nadu even as he
He said that the government should allow Chennai-based Integrated Coach Factory to be used to its optimum level and introduce chartered trains to Ooty, which attracts 2.5 lakh tourists annually.
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Praveen Rashtrapal (Cong) voiced concern over backlog of vacancies which is to the tune of 42,000 in the railways.
He warned the government against privatisation of the railways.
Meghraj Jain (BJP) suggested that MPs should be asked to adopt railway stations on the lines of Sansad Gram Yojna.

Praful Patel (NCP) appreciated the Budget, saying Suresh Prabhu has the ability to "turn around" the railways and "make the difference we expect".
He appreciated the fact that Prabhu did not resort to populism in the budget and focused on targets.
The former Civil Aviation Minister highlighted the need for connecting airports and railway networks. He also made a case for revisiting the sub-urban railways.
He also welcomed the proposal to run bullet trains and said speed of trains could be increased on several stretches.
Narendra Budania (Cong) said Rajasthan gave a historic verdict by giving all the 25 MPs to BJP, but the ruling party did not resciprocate the gesture of the people as the rail budget is not as per the expectations.
BJP MP Rangasayee Ramkrishna made a case for multi-modal transport authority to coordinate road, rail and air transport.
He also lamented that the previous UPA government delayed the construction of Dedicated Freight Corridor.
Md Ali Khan (Cong) alleged that Tatkal scheme was
intended to benefit the rich at the cost of the poor and demanded that any move to privatise Indian Railways be stopped as it would be detrimental to workers.
Balwinder Singh Bhunder (SAD) said the announcement to build cold storages and warehousing at the vacant land was a good move by the Railways.
A V Swamy (Ind) lamented that Odisha had failed to attract attention of the Centre in terms of railway connection.
He expressed hope that justice would be delivered to tribals of Odisha, facing poverty and extremism, through grant of railway connectivity by the joint initiatives of Railway Minister and Odisha Chief Minister.
Salim Ansari (BSP) demanded that the general coaches in trains be increased for the benefit of people and said blankets should be washed regularly.
PL Punia (Cong) said the railways' fares should have been lowered as international oil prices had reduced but sadly no such step was taken.
Demanding transparency in the functioning of railways, he said the backlog of SC/ST vacancies should be cleared immediately.
Ananda Bhaskar Ropalu (Cong) questioned as to why no attention was being paid towards the genuine demand of railway engineers to be brought under category B from present C category.