The Union Railway Minister, Mamta Bannerjee has presented the railway budget. It is supposed to be a budget for common man. She talked about giving izzat (respect to poor people), separate trains for women and separate coaches for handicaps and senior citizen. Did you like the budget? Do you believe that the promises made in it will ever be fulfilled? Lets discuss, your views.
There were many promises in the budget which sounded like such a deja vu. I don't know for how many years have we been hearing about a proposed revamp of the platforms and trains. Better reservation facilities and safety. But when all this is going to happen? I don't see much change on the platforms except they are getting more crowded by the day. I think it is all just an eye wash.
Mamta must loose her grip over railways after leaving that leaving that office some years ago. I suprised about her proposal of double decker in AC coaches ? How in the word she can manage double decker without changing the compartment size ! Well we AP people were always disappointed, again apart from making secunderabad station an international level terminal there is nothing to cheer.
[justify] [justify] Shahanakhan has nailed the issue. Mamta has presented a populist budget and has tried to please various sections; she has missed some also at least on regional considerations. But how the various promises made would be met in practice is the crux of the matter. In her reply to the debate on the Railway Budget in Parliament she has informed about setting up some monitoring committees as well as named some senior officers of the Railway Board who have been made incharge of passenger amenities and to monitor progress of work against expenditure allocations, etc. But then it is still 'hardware' of the matter if one is allowed to use computer terminology. It is not easy to increase efficiency levels as it amounts to swimming against the tide in our country. Ensuring punctuality, safety, security and hygiene are still tougher problems. Commercial utilization of Railway land is still not out of the legal wrangles. Then the Indian Railways have been having some structural long run problems like huge cross-subsidization of passenger travel by goods services; large number of surplus employees; low productivity of capital investment; leakages in the name of social burden, etc. The Budget does not give any indication of making progress to come to grips with such issues. As such, the system cannot be sustained by populism alone. [/justify]
I don't understand budgets that much, but all I know that traveling in a train in India is a complete nightmare. I have been to Europe and traveled by train to many countries and I just can't believe the cleanliness and management on the platform and in coaches. I know that we can't have European trains in India (at least not now) but we can at least improve the conditions. :rant:rant
