Friday, February 25, 2011

Railway Budget-Only A Wish List To Serve Political Agenda

Railway Budget-Only A Wish List To Serve Political Agenda

New Delhi, February 25: This year's Railway Budget is clearly a wish-list presented by the Railway Minister of UPA-II Government. This is specifically so, for the new projects and industries announced by the Minister. All these are there without any funds or time frame.

Various announcements made earlier have not been implemented and nearly 114 pending projects have been bundled together as Pradhan Mantri's Rail Vikas Yojana, to be undertaken by the next five year plan. This being the situation, the new announcements have been made and it is clear that there have not been any follow-up on earlier announcements nor can we expect positive action on the new announcements.

Various new trains have been introduced without enough engines and coaches and also there are not enough tracks for all these. As regards the vacancies in Indian Railways, manpower has come down from 13.94 lakhs as on 31.03.2008 to 13,61,519 within the last two years, as per the Annual Report of Indian Railways presented along with the budget. CITU strongly opposes the "Liberalised Active Retirement Scheme" announced by the Railway Minister.  

Indian Railways have become virtually bankrupt as is clear form the details presented to the Parliament. Railway Minister is paving the way for privatization of railways through her overdependence on PPP model for resource mobilization.  This is the result of this prime sector being utilized only for a political agenda without a proper administrative policy and directions for ensuring viability, costing very dearly to the country




Indian Railways on a Ruinous Path

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The CPI (M) considers the Railway Budget presented in parliament today as a fraudulent exercise aimed at window dressing the pathetic state of Railway finances and announcing sundry projects, which will never take off the ground. The Railways is actually facing a financial crisis. There is no increase in freight earnings this year despite the GDP growing at over 8%. The safety record is abysmal with a spate of accidents leading to deaths of over two hundred people in the past one year. Passenger amenities like food and cleanliness have deteriorated sharply, with punctuality hitting a new low. 

The operating ratio of 92.1 mentioned in the Budget for 2010-11 is not a credible estimate and conceals the much higher actual operating ratio. This has been done by playing with the figures. The freight loading target this year had to be lowered by the Railway Ministry by 20 million tons (as admitted by the Railway Minister in her speech), which exposes the inefficiency of Railway operations. Despite this, the freight earnings have been retained at the same level of last year in the Budget. This results in a higher level of traffic receipts than what will actually accrue. Moreover, dividend liability committed for the year 2010-11 fell short by Rs. 1700 crore. All this has been done to artificially inflate the operating ratio, raising questions about the credibility of the entire accounting process.

The Budget claims an increase in the annual Plan Outlay to Rs. 57630 crore in 2011-12 from Rs. 40314.93 spent in 2010-11. It is noteworthy, that bulk of this is to be financed through increased funds from the union budget (Gross Budgetary Support) totaling Rs. 20000 crore (up from Rs. 15800 crore last year) and market borrowings of Rs. 20500 crore by the IRFC (up from Rs. 10100 crore last year). On the other hand, investment from Railways internal resources are budgeted to go down by Rs. 300 crore compared to last year. This clearly shows that Railways own resources are going to deteriorate further even as it draws more resources from the general budget and increase its indebtedness, ruining its financial health further in the long-term. 

The Railway Budget of 2010 had announced numerous projects, from world class stations, to railway coach and loco factories, wagon and axle units, power plants, auto hubs, sports complexes, hospitals and so on. It is clear from Budget 2011, that these announcements were mere gimmicks which have either been recycled this year or conveniently forgotten. Announcements of projects without any specific plan outlay or time schedule amounts to a farce. Railway Budget 2011 is replete with such farcical announcements at the cost of the credibility of an institution like the Indian Railways. The 6 high speed passenger corridors announced in 2010 Budget and forgotten this year is a prime example.

The cavalier manner in which the Railway Minister has claimed an improved performance in railway safety through statistical jugglery, despite the death of 216 persons in railway accidents over the past one year, reflects her lack of concern for the lives of ordinary people. Her promise to install anti-collision devices (ACDs) in three railway zones in 2009 Budget is yet to be realised. And yet she has promised to extend the ACDs to another 4 railway zones. There is no mention of the Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) in this Budget, whose implementation was promised last year! 

Rather than explaining her inaction in the filling of 1.75 lakh Group C and D posts in railways and 13000 posts in RPF, which have been lying vacant for the past many years, the Railway minister has made another empty promise. In fact, total employee strength of the Indian Railways has come down by 24600 from March 2009 to March 2010, totaling 1361519 as per the Indian Railways Annual report 2009-10 (not 14 lakhs as repeatedly claimed by the Railway Minister). 

It is clear that under the stewardship of the Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Indian Railways is on a ruinous path. Is the Prime Minister allowing this to happen due to "compulsions of coalition politics"?

Agriculture at 'crossroads': Economic Survey

Observing that Indian agriculture is at a "crossroads", the Economic Survey on Friday called for a Second Green Revolution with newer technological breakthroughs and higher investment in the sector, even while projecting 5.4 per cent farm growth this year.
"... The agriculture sector in India is at a crossroads, with rising demand for food items and relatively slower supply response in many commodities resulting in frequent spikes in food inflation," the pre-budget survey said.
The survey said the agriculture and allied sectors would register 5.4 per cent growth this fiscal due to a good monsoon, compared to a mere 0.4 per cent expansion last year.
But the sector needs to grow at 8.5 per cent next fiscal to achieve the targeted 4 per cent growth in the Eleventh Plan (2007-12).
Pointing out that the technological breakthroughs achieved in the 1960s are gradually waning and no big crop-tech has come up since then, the survey noted, "The need for a Second Green Revolution is being experienced more than ever before."
The survey outlined the special attention that needs to be given to increasing production of nutrition-rich crops like pulses, fruits and vegetables, which remained untouched in the first Green Revolution.
Consequently, it suggested that Indian agriculture should diversify from just crop farming to livestock, fisheries, poultry and horticulture, besides focusing on raising farm productivity with adequate focus on rain-fed areas.
The survey also felt that augmenting farm production still remains a challenge, with stagnation in crop acreage and yields, and prescribed "concerted and focused efforts" to overcome this challenge.
"A holistic approach, simultaneously working on agriculture research, development, dissemination of technology and provision of agricultural inputs and irrigation, would help achieve the critical levels of productivity needed," it said.
It noted that higher farm output is important not only for the country's food security, but also to sustain high growth.
Calling for higher public and private investment in the farm sector, the survey said, "The choice before the nation is clear -- to invest more in agriculture and allied sectors with the right strategies, policies and interventions. This is also a necessary condition for 'inclusive growth'"
Higher level of investments are required for increasing farm productivity and also create infrastructure for transport, storage and distribution of agricultural produce, it added.
"The relatively weak supply responses to price hikes in agriculture commodities, especially food articles, in the recent past brings back in to focus the central question of efficient supply chain management and need for sustained levels of growth in agriculture and allied sectors," it observed.

February 24,2011

JPC set up to go into 2G spectrum issue

New Delhi, Feb 24 : A Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum allocation issue, being dubbed by the opposition as the biggest scam in independent India, was set up today amid charges and countercharges between...»

February 24,2011

I assure the House there is nothing we will not do to clean our public life, says PM.

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February 24,2011

Unfortunate developments have taken place in the areas of telecom and CWG, says PM.

Unfortunate developments have taken place in the areas of telecom and CWG, says PM. »

February 24,2011

Inflation in last 18 months has become a problem, says PM.

Inflation in last 18 months has become a problem, says PM.»

February 21,2011

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February 20,2011

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February 19,2011

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February 18,2011

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February 15,2011

Mamata Looking At Jaundiced Eyes

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February 12,2011

Spreading Menace in Dooars and Darjeeling Hills.

The spurt in violence in Darjeeling Hills seems to be part of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha's (GJM) plan to increase its strike rate. In the first major strike of its kind a group of GJM workers brandishing Kukris and other...»

February 04,2011

Maoists Thriving under Mamata's Protection

By now it is known almost to all in West Bengal that Mamata Banerjee is a friend of Maoists whose one and only political agenda is annihilation of CPI(M) workers dedicating their lives for the economic uplift of the rural...»

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