Railway Budget: A Saga Of Glib Talk And Hollow Promises

Despite suggestions by 22 panels, why issue of railway safety continues to be on the back burner, asks S Pushpavanam

In his second railway budget, will the railway minister Suresh Prabhu have something new to offer? (Photo: The Quint)

The rhetoric of the bureaucracy would have become very familiar to people who follow railway budgets. Since it is mainly a PR exercise aimed at creating an impression and not really meant to be executed within a time frame, it has become an interesting pastime. Ministers may come and go but there is very little the railway budget has to offer.

It might begin with a paean of praise for the Prime Minister followed by a few sentences on what the railways has achieved with the help of its sincere public-service oriented workers and officials. They may even try to attribute the year to a specific cause. They may call it the year of the customer or the passenger year as they did in the nineties. For them, the passenger is clearly not the customer.

Work Half Done

• Despite suggestions from as many as 22 panels in the past, railway safety still doesn’t seem to be a priority for policy-makers.
  
• Lack of accountability is evident from the fact that only one out of 99 new railway lines sanctioned in the last ten years has been completed.
  
• Despite recurring hikes in fare and surcharges in the name of safety and development, services of Indian Railways haven’t improved.
  
• Dozens of pilot projects haven’t seen the light of day, putting a question mark on the intention to improve brand value of the Indian Railways.
  

22 Debroy Committee reports submitted in the past have found their way into the attics of the Rail Bhavan. (Photo: iStockphoto)

Is Safety a Priority?

As usual, it would be declared that safety is a priority for them. But you would never be told how many heads rolled when a train rammed into another, or when two trains caught fire or when several derailments took place during 2015-16 or in 2014-15.

The Debroy Committee may have submitted its report on restructuring of railways in June 2015. The fact is that 22 such committee reports submitted in the past have found their way into the attics of the Rail Bhavan. Possibly, a committee will be appointed to study Debroy Committee Report and analyse its implications. This is the usual route to the attic.

Many of you may have concluded that this article is brimming with prejudices and so allow me to give certain examples.

Sadananda Gowda in his Railway Budget speech of 2014 said that out of 676 projects in 30 years, only 327 were completed. After spending the original estimate Rs 1,57,883 crore,  now the railway budget needs Rs 1,82,000 crore to complete the rest.  Only one out of 99 new lines sanctioned in the last ten years have been completed.

Debroy, in a recent article, says rather satirically, “A new Railway Minister wants to show a healthy operating ratio? Not an issue, reduce contributions to Safety Fund Depreciation Reserve fund and PF. Consequences will be borne by posterity.  RB could do anything at will and on demand at the cost of safety.”

The Indian Railways far behind in terms of accountability and providing services to its customers. (Photo: iStockphoto)

If they want to hike the fare, they can think of one thousand ways of doing it without even calling it fare hike. If any other railways in the world said, look you want us to carry from Point A to Point B, pay us this much; if you want us to carry you safely, pay us more, it would be considered outrageous. But our Indian Railways did exactly that and got away with their safety surcharge.

Similarly, if any trader sells you his goods for a price and collects ‘x’ rupees as development charge, no one would pay it and that would be termed as a terribly unfair trade practice. But our Indian Railways have been collecting ‘Development Charges’ for years. It is quite unlikely that they would come up with something clever this year.

An overcrowded train in India. (Photo: Reuters)

Unfinished Projects

I am reminded of Tennyson’s lines, “They landed in an afternoon where it always seemed an afternoon.” Similarly in Indian Railways, once they launch a pilot project, it always remains a pilot project. These are few of my favourite pilot projects: safety devices like GPS guided signalling, train activated warning system, anti-collision device, fool-proof signaling, advanced warning systems, bio-toilets.

Similarly, dedicated freight corridors, dedicated passenger train corridors, Railway Safety Authority, Rail Tariff Authority and branded food in pantry cars, fire extinguishers in every coach will find a mention.

These are some of the regular characters in the drama called ‘Railway Budget’. The budget will never tell you why they have not installed scoot and flash warning devices at every level crossing gate and have instead saved hundreds of crores for salaries. It is because these appointments are the play field of our politicians and union leaders.

Rat-eaten suitcases, delayed trains, unhygienic lavatories, non-pushable flush knobs, waterless wash basins, unusable newspaper pouches in the chair cars, recurring accidents, predictably, will not find a mention. As usual, the prime minister and ruling party will welcome the budget and, of course, the opposition will criticise it.

(The writer is Secretary, Consumer Protection Council, Tamil Nadu)

Also read: Will the Railway Budget 2016 Offer Concrete Plan on Bio-Toilets?