DeshGujarat news, Ahmedabad, 14 March 2012

It was a reasonable and decent railway budget presented by union railway minister Shri Dinesh Trivedi.

No railway budget can satisfy all demands and demands of all, however if we look at the Gujarat aspect of the budget, it is fairly well.

There can be number of issues pertaining to railways in Gujarat not addressed in this budget, but then, this is India’s railway budget and not Gujarat’s solitary railway budget.

MBA from American University, Shri Dinesh Trivedi is from Kutch district of Gujarat. Bidada village of Mandvi taluka is his native place. He had fought an election from Kutch in past, but in this BJP dominated land he lost the poll. Trivedi later was elected from West Bengal. He first became Health minister, and later Railway minister of India.

Immediately after becoming a Railway minister, Shri Trivedi visited his native place in Kutch. Trivedi’s occasionally visits to Kutch continue even now. During one of the visits to Kutch, he stood up in a queue at Bhuj railway station like a common man.

Trivedi has dmonstrated his love for native land in his first railway budget. Kutch has got a much-awaited new AC train connecting Bhuj to Mumbai. The train will take lesser time to travel between Bhuj and Mumbai. When thousands of Kutchis are settled in Mumbai, this train is good news for the people of Kutch. Kutch has also received couple of more trains in today’s railway budget, and a railway coach factory too.

Soon after taking over as a new Railway minister, Trivedi immediately called the railway officials and heard them. Trivedi, like any other Gujarati gentleman didn’t take much time to understand the business of running railways, and learnt that the Indian Railways was in critical financial condition(Trivedi in his own words narrates it like this:The Indian Railways is in ICCU).

On becoming a Railway minister, the first issue bumped across him was a tragic railway accident. Trivedi went deep into the details of accident, and found serious safety related issues attached to the overall system of Indian railways.

With another Gujarati, Sam Pitroda as friend and housemate, Trivedi started building a strategy to make the Indian railways financially strong and safer.

Trivedi initiated a long consultation process involving experts working inside and outside the railways. Trivedi’s this exercise was undertaken, in ore-budget days( like, take an example of his low profile and academic visits to IIM Ahmedabad and NID Ahmedabad visits in January).

And then came the budget.

And as soon as the budget speech was over, the country was diverted to all-together a new discussion. A discussion, not on merits of railway budget, but a discussion on Trivedi’s political boss Mamata Banerjee opposing Trivedi’s decision to increase passenger fares!

Railway fare hike announced today in the budget was essential to sustain the Indian railways.

This was unavoidable to rescue Indian railways becoming another Air India.

For last 8 years, each Railway minister presented populist budget, pushing Indian railways to deeper financial problems.

Amid rising labour cost, fuel cost, engineering cost, there was absolute necessity for generating more revenues.

By midnight today, it is becoming clear that Trivedi will have to resign, and will have to pay price for his decision to hike the railway fare.

Trivedi told media persons, “Country first, family, party and self then after”.

He said, “as a railway minister, I did whatever was necessary to do.”

When asked whether he was ready to lose his chair, Trivedi replied, “people gave life for the country, what’s in chair?”

The country is today in solidarity with Shri Dineshbhai Trivedi.

He did right thing as per the economics, and he is punished politically.

Best wishes to Dineshbhai.

-DeshGujarat

This part of his budget speech resulted into Mamata’s decision to remove him

-I have had wide consultations with various stakeholders. The input costs of railways have been going up. The impact of the 6th Pay Commission on the staff costs is well known to the Hon’ble Members. Fuel prices have increased by more than 50% during the last decade. The movement of Wholesale Price Index and Consumer Price Index has followed similar pattern. During this period, the cost of passenger transportation by road has increased manifold. Consequently, a large chunk of short distance passenger traffic has got diverted from road to rail, creating additional pressure on rail infrastructure.

-Therefore, I have been counselled to go for a steep increase in passenger fare as there has been no increase for last almost 8 years. However, guided by an overriding concern for the aam admi, I have desisted from any steep increase.

-As Hon’ble Members are aware, so far the earnings from the freight traffic have been subsiding the passenger traffic. This model of heavy cross subsidy is not sustainable over a long period. If this continues, then I am afraid railways may lose freight traffic to road.

-Madam, there has been a demand from several quarters for setting up of an independent Railway Tariff Regulatory Authority that will suggest the level of tariffs both for freight and fares. However, I feel this is an important area and needs a serious debate. The pros and cons of the decision are required to be considered carefully.

-There is no exclusive body to advise whether an independent regulatory body is desirable. I am therefore, appointing a body of Experts with representatives of customers, passengers, trade/industry, and public representatives etc. to examine this 37 important issue. On receipt of the report and after debating in Parliament a suitable decision will be taken.

-I propose to rationalise the fares to cause minimal impact on the common man and to keep the burden within tolerance limits in general. I am asking for an extra only 2 paise per km for suburban and ordinary second class. Similarly, increase for mail express second class will be by only 3 paise per km; for sleeper class by only 5 paise per km; for AC Chair Car, AC 3 tier & First Class by only 10 paise per km; AC 2 Tier by only 15 paise per km; and AC I by only 30 paise per km. Corresponding rationalisation in minimum distance and fare chargeable in various classes has also been proposed.

– I am aware that a large number of passengers face problems at ticket windows because of non-availability of loose change. This causes a lot of hardship and delays the ticket dispensing process leading to longer queues. Incidences of passengers having to forego the change due towards them are also not uncommon. In order to address this problem, I have decided to incorporate a rounding off mechanism in the fare structure. For all ordinary and mail/express trains, rounding off will be to the next nearest five rupees. However, for the suburban passengers, I propose to permit a limited exception in the form of downward rounding off also in a few cases. By way of example, a fare of `11 will become `10 and `6 will become `5. The minimum fare chargeable and the platform ticket will now be `5.

-The proposed revisions will have marginal impact on the fares. The increase in fares for suburban second class passengers travelling 35 km will be only `2. For non-suburban second class ordinary passenger travelling a distance of 135 km, increase will be `4 only.

-For second class mail/express passenger travelling a distance of 375 km, the addition to the fare will be only `12 and that for a 750 km journey by sleeper class on mail/express train will be only `40. An AC 3 tier passenger travelling a distance of 530 km will be required to pay an additional `57. The increase for AC 2 tier and AC I passenger travelling over same distance will be `84 and `163 respectively.

-The proposed adjustments do not even cover fully the impact of increase in fuel prices during the last eight years. I am keeping the valuable passengers of Indian Railways insulated from the burden of increase in staff costs.

-I wish to share with the august House that I am contemplating a system of segregating fuel component in the cost associated with passenger services and call it FAC (fuel adjustment component). The FAC will be dynamic in nature and will change in either direction with the change of fuel cost. I must also be forthright and take the House into confidence in mentioning that in the event of any further increase in input costs of railways, it will not be possible for us to keep the passengers cushioned from the impact of such increases.

-Through the above proposals, I seek to create a partnership with my passengers and I assure the august House that the additional revenue will be help the railways provide better, cleaner and safer services to them. I am sure that the people at large would welcome it.

-Anjanishahi: I am not tweeting about the whole budget. I only appreciate the fare hike decision!

-Bhaveshsharma30: What Mamata has done to force UPA govt to reduce inflation if she is so concerned about aam aadmi? Croocks working for political mileage.

-Vkidambi:Shame on what TMC did today. Union minister is answerable to the PM and the country, not to the party chief.

-Sudhee26:Are politicians the new aamadmi? coz others seemed to be ok with nominal fare hike!

UPDATES on Thursday morning

Dinesh Trivedi says he has not resign as neither PM nor Mamata has asked him to do so. Trivedi said that he would attend the session in Lok Sabha and will answer the questions in question hour. He said if asked for, he would resign in a minute.