Date:04/07/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/04/stories/2009070458020700.htm

Other States - Bihar

Nitish welcomes Railway Budget

Shoumojit Banerjee

Lauds move for presentation of White Paper

‘Operating expense of 92.5 % presented a much more realistic picture’
‘Projects should be completed within their allotted time period’

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday welcomed the Railway Budget presented by Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in Parliament.

Talking to reporters outside the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Nitish Kumar praised Ms. Banerjee’s move to bring out a White Paper on the Railways’ organisational, operational and financial status based on the last five years’ performance.

“There is no need now to present a rosy picture of surplus any more. The Paper will settle once and for all the question of inflated figures when Mr. Lalu Prasad was the Railway Minister,” said Mr. Nitish Kumar, himself a former Union Railway Minister.

He commended Ms. Banerjee on her manoeuvres in the Lok Sabha during the Budget presentation for ably cutting Mr. Prasad down to size without any rancour or bitterness.

Mr. Kumar said the very fact that “Rs.5,000 crore worth of budgetary assistance had been asked for indicated a reduction in the Railways’ margins”. He said the operating expense of 92.5 per cent pegged by Ms. Banerjee presented a much more realistic picture of the money spent per 100 rupees rather than the 77 per cent during Mr. Prasad’s tenure as Railway Minister from 2004-2009.

“The operating expense during my tenure as Railway Minister was 91 per cent with a profit margin of Rs.9 per 100 rupees. So a profit margin of Rs.7.50 is much more palatable than the fantastic surplus of Rs.23 as shown by Mr. Prasad,” said the Chief Minister.

Mr. Kumar said his major expectation from this budget was that “projects would be completed within their allotted time period”. Criticising the unachievable targets set during Mr. Lalu Prasad’s tenure, the Chief Minister lauded the fact that Ms. Banerjee had decided to scale down targets. Earlier, Mr. Lalu Prasad had set a target of earning Rs.59,059 crore from goods and services and Rs.25,000 crore from passengers in the interim rail budget.

While appreciative of the move to reduce the time frame for advance booking from five days to two days, Mr. Kumar said he strongly felt that the concept of the scheme should be altogether done away with. Instead, he urged that the process of instant booking be initiated under an altogether separate scheme.