The Hindu : Creation of new railway zones not retrograde: Nitish

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002

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Creation of new railway zones not retrograde: Nitish

By Our New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI JULY 30. A day after the Union Cabinet approved of the creation of new railway zones, the controversy over the bifurcation of the Eastern Railways figured prominently in Parliament. While the Trinamool chief, Mamata Banerjee, blew hot and cold in Kolkata, the two Houses witnessed a heated debate even as the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, defended the decision.

Talking to The Hindu here, Mr. Kumar maintained that Monday's Cabinet decision was based purely on administrative reasons and was not a political one. Defending his stand of notifying all the seven zones, he sought to allay the apprehension that the new set-up would gobble up the finances and place an additional burden on the Railways.

The creation of new zones was not a "retrograde step,'' but was designed to take decentralisation a step further. "We have already spent Rs. 58 crores on setting up the new zones and there is a provision for Rs. 30 crores more for the current year. We will be spending a total of Rs. 600 crores ultimately to operationalise all the seven zones, which is easily within our means considering our turnover of Rs. 80,000 crores. With the changing needs of the Railways and a competitive business climate, the creation of new zones had become a necessity,'' Mr. Kumar said.

It would take three to five years to put the new infrastructure in place. There would be no recurring expenditure on the new zones and the funds from other heads would not be diverted for them. "This is our internal matter and is directly related to improving efficiency and fine-tuning administrative set-up,'' he said.

But the parliamentarians from West Bengal refused to share the Railway Minister's views and in both the Houses, they joined issue with the Government. The Left parties insisted that the move flew in the face of several recommendations against bifurcation.

The divide, cutting across party lines, was noticeable with MPs from Bihar and Orissa disputing the contention. When new States and districts were being created for better administration, why should a similar move for improving the efficiency and profitability of the Railways be objected to, they asked.

In the Lok Sabha, Rup Chand Pal of the CPI (M) demanded the suspension of question hour to allow a discussion on the bifurcation issue, and with the Trinamool Congress and the Congress joining in, the Speaker, Manohar Joshi, asked the agitated members to wait till zero hour.

And, at the appointed hour, when the House took up an impromptu discussion on the recent statements of the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on Jammu and Kashmir, the irked Trinamool Congress MPs walked out in protest, but not before placing on record their own views on the issue.

Vociferous protests marked the proceedings for a while in the Rajya Sabha before the Deputy Chairperson, Najma Heptulla, restored order. Later, the Congress leader, Pranab Mukherjee, wondered why, when emotions were running high on the issue, a decision was not taken to defuse the situation rather than heighten it.

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