Given a second chance, I will present the same Rail Budget, says Dinesh Trivedi
April 17, 2012
Before the budget we hiked freight rates which affect the common people more, but nobody is even talking about it
Moneylife Digital Team
Dinesh Trivedi, the railway minister who was removed for not obeying his party boss’ order to roll back the passenger fare hike, said, “Even if I get a second chance, I will still present the same Railway Budget, as it was not prepared for any region, person or state but for the country and its vast rail network.”
Speaking at a packed audience at the Moneylife Foundation event, Mr Trivedi shared several incidents of his tenure as the country’s railway minister. He said, “I was never the first choice for the post of rail minister but was given the portfolio. After taking over, I studied the situation and worked with all quarters very closely before preparing the Rail Budget that had provisions for hiking passenger fare hikes after nine years. This was essential for modernisation and future plans of the Railways.”
“However, after the Budget, I was asked to resign from the post because I refused to roll back the passenger fare hike. The prime minister and entire Cabinet had faith in me, but to avoid political turmoil and subsequent mid-term polls, I had no option but to resign,” he said.
Just before the Budget, the Railways increased freight rates by up to 20% for several commodities that resulted in increase in prices of several goods from coal to fertilizers. “Every common man does not travel in a train everyday and therefore the passenger fare hike in my Budget may not have hurt him so much as the freight hike. And yet, those who questioned and later asked me to vacate my post, have kept mum on the freight hike,” Mr Trivedi said.
Incidentally, Mr Trivedi’s Rail Budget, presented on 14 March 2012 was well received and supported by common people, industry groups and the five employee unions of the Railways.
Replying to several questions on his future course of action, the former rail minister, said, “If you think the Budget was good, then you should insist that it gets passed in Parliament. People should meet their Members of Parliament (MPs) and demand that it should be passed for improving the Railways. You can approach your chief ministers, particularly from Maharashtra and ask him what would happen to the projects that are proposed in the Rail Budget?”
Samir Zhaveri, a member from the audience, who lost his both legs in a railway accident, wanted to know the measures being taken for passenger safety. Mr Trivedi said, “I agree with you. There is dirt on the tracks, the toilet system corrodes the tracks and the Railway Protection Force, many of the times, tries to loot people. But to change all this we need a paradigm shift and I was trying to make a beginning.”
Speaking about running public enterprises without any interference from politicians, Mr Trivedi, said, “The answer is no. There is far too much interference from the political system and to be fair, from the bureaucracy also. There is far too much of fear of the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). So nobody wants to take a decision. So what is the answer? Make everything computer-oriented. I was trying to do that in the Railways. Why should the files move from one table to another? It should be on a computer monitor and it should be public property. As long as you do not have full transparency, this problem will remain.”
Replying to a question related with former rail minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s famous ‘turnaround’ of the Railways, Mr Trivedi said, “There is no proper accounting system in the Railways. The corporate accounting system of profit and loss is just not there. So depreciation can be categorised and that is what had happened.”
“In addition, Mr Yadav used the system of Tatkal for increasing the fares by hiking the quota for this category and increasing the number of days for booking these tickets. Many people did not know this. Another thing Mr Yadav did was to increase the freight ratio. For a 10 tonnes load factor the freight ratio is 8:2. This means you can load eight tonnes easily but can accommodate the additional two tonnes as well, which is used sometimes or left unused. Mr Yadav increased it to 9:1 and thus there appeared the increase in revenues through freight income. But basically, it was the accounting system that was used to show this ‘turnaround’ of Indian Railways,” Mr Trivedi said.
.jpg "MoneyLife")
