The Railway Budget was today passed by the Lok Sabha with Minister Mamata Banerjee announcing a slew of measures to tone up the functioning of the Railways in terms of amenities and safety and deciding to set up an expert committee to prepare a blueprint for future.
Replying to a marathon discussion on the Budget, she said two more non-stop 'Duranto' (fast) trains — Delhi-Secunderabad and Delhi-Nagpur — would be introduced in addition to 12 such trains already announced.
Two of the 14 such trains would start within a month, she said but did not identify them.
Catering to regional sentiments which have often erupted in the form of violence in recent times, she favoured 50 per cent quota for locals in induction in Railways through the Railway Recruitment Board and question paper in regional language as she promised to review the process of intake.
She also included several more stations in the list of those to be developed as 'adarsh' (model) and world class ones, responding to demands by members from all parties, who accused her of only focussing on West Bengal while neglecting rest of the country.
The Budget was passed by voice vote after suspension of a rule which provides for referring of Demand for Grants and Appropriation Bills to the Standing Committees.
Banerjee announced setting up an expert panel, headed by FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra to prepare a business plan for toning up the Railways. It will have representatives of Chambers of Commerce besides Member (Traffic) and Member (Engineering) of the Railway Board.
She said monitoring committees, headed by senior officials like members of Railway Board, would also be set up to keep tabs on train punctuality, amenities and cleanliness.
Emphasising that realisation of these objectives was not an impossible task, she said efforts would be made to attain punctuality of trains up to 90 per cent.
Declaring that all the commitments made in Budget would be implemented within this year, Banerjee said the White Paper promised by her would be unveiled as soon as possible.
She clarified that the exercise was not to target "any individual" but only to reflect upon the past and present state of affairs of the Railways and chalking out the roadmap for future.
Her promise to bring out the White Paper had upset her predecessor Lalu Prasad and given a handle to the opposition to attack the RJD chief.
Banerjee said her step was nothing unusual as such an exercise was carried out earlier by her predecessors George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar.
She, however, did not give any time-frame despite BJP leader Ananth Kumar insisting that it be unveiled on the first day of the Winter Session. She said the timing would depend on internal and external audits.
"The White Paper will have colourful ideas in black and white," Banerjee said. While speaking on the White Paper, she addressed Prasad and said "Laluji I did not speak against you."
Responding to demands from members, she included more stations, including Goa, Calicut, Kakinada, Nizamabad, Una, Rohtak, Meerut, Mehboobnagar and Denkanal, in the list of stations to be developed as model stations.
There were demands by many MPs, including those from Congress, with regard to their states, but nothing could be heard in the din.
Speaker Meira Kumar told the members to meet the minister separately with their demands which she would try to fulfil but they continued to shout.
As the din caused interruption in Banerjee's speech, Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee had to ask his partymen to take their seats and allow her to continue.
Noting that expectations were very high, she promised to fulfil demands of as many members as possible but sought time.
Rejecting scepticism over her promise to run double decker trains, she said it would be done within a year.
On the controversial aspect of surplus funds with the Railways which Prasad put at Rs 90,000 crore, she clarified that a corpus of Rs 8,361 crore remained after expenditure of Rs 13,600 crore on account of Pay Commission award last year and Rs 2,600 crore this year.
Her earlier statement that Railways had only Rs 8,361 crore was seen as contradicting Prasad and undermining his tenure.
As part of steps for improvement of amenities, Banerjee said an officer would be deputed to monitor it.
Acknowledging that cleanliness of food and drinking water on Railways was a problem, she said the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) would be reconstituted following which it would not be responsible for serving eatables on Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains but only engage in tourism matters.
At many stations, costly burgers were being served which poor people could not afford to eat. To address the situation, 'janata khana' (public food) would be served by the Railways.
She said safety and security of railways would be the responsibility of the Chairman of the Railway Board.
For development of select stations to world class standards, she said global tenders would be floated. The funds available with Railways will not be utilised for it as these would be used to improve amenities.
Banerjee said the railways has also enhanced its order of coaches from 11,000 to 18,000. The enhanced orders would spur growth in the times of economic crisis, she said.
On criticism by BJP on her decision on optic fibre cabling, Banerjee said she had initiated the project while she was minister in the NDA government.
"Why blame me now. I initiated the projects for commercial utilisation of railway land and Optic Fibre Cable while I was in NDA. You did not oppose it then," she said, adding she was reviving it as her earlier plans had not been fulfilled.
