Paswan's pet project under fire

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 16. Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan's cherished project of creating new railway zones during his stint as Railway Minister has come under fire from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). The decision to create new zones without detailed examination would lead to estimated unproductive investment of Rs. 784 crores. Of this amount, over Rs. 50 crores had already been incurred without any tangible gains, the CAG report tabled in Lok Sabha said today.

It is no secret that the Railways wanted to scrap these zones as soon as Mr. Paswan had demitted office. Even the equally populistic Ms. Mamata Banerjee saw the unreasonableness of creating new zones and, therefore, did not insist that they be made fully operational. But the Railways has been unable to turn the clock back on these zones due to heavy political pressure from States where their headquarters are located.

The report has nailed the dilemma facing the cash strapped the Indian Railways. ``The decision to create new zones had come in the backdrop of rather difficult budgetary and resource constraints where the Railways had to resort to costly market borrowing....The decision to create new zones is bound to have serious financial repercussions as also adversely impact the projects have in hand.'' It also quoted a Railway Convention Committee (RCC) report which observed that the zones were created without any examination at a time when the Railways was facing an acute financial crunch. ``The decision is prima facie injudicious as the entire issue of reorganisation is now being reviewed by the Railway Board due to resource constraints.''

The report also said a proposal for creation of new zones was deferred only a couple of years before Mr. Paswan became the Railway Minister. A test check of items dealt with by one of the new zones revealed that the system had in no way contributed in providing relief to the adjacent heavily worked zones.

``Under the circumstances, the reasons that prompted the Railways to again make attempts within two years to get seven new zones created (as against the four ones mooted by the RCC) are not clear.''

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : 'Arjun superior to Pak. tank'
Next     : Concern over attack on journalists in T.N.