The Railway Minister of the UPA government has placed his budget for 2005-’06. It received certificates from his Prime Minister as a budget towards modernization, as also from the ‘left’ allies for being pro-people. But those could not be enough for covering up the minister’s relying on verbosity and stunt.

On paper, there has been no enhancement of passenger fares. Freight tariff has been ‘rationalized’ with various classes of commodities clubbed together to bring them down from 4000 to 80 categories. A few categories of passengers have been exempted from paying for their travel: for instance, farmers and milkmen moving for their training , rural students from government schools on educational tours, interviewees for government services on their way to the interview centre. But these do not end up in facts only.

Let us first speak of the benevolent exemption. What percentage of countrymen will actually be benefited by this benevolence? How many of poor farmers or milkmen travel out-of-station to receive training? Are not government schools becoming a precious, rare thing to be found villages? Students attending still existing government schools normally find it hard to arrange for a square meal. How many of them can even dream of educational tours? Government jobs are also evaporating fast; a few offered draw applications in thousands; the applicants pay their usual train fare to move to the examination centres. The railway is kind enough to exempt only the fortunate fews who have the call for interview.

It is true that in general, fares have not been enhanced. At the same time, it is equally true that traveling by Indian railways has become increasingly uncomfortable, even dangerous, with minimum services and basic amenities of food, light, water, cleaniness and others disappearing rapidly; security becoming an obsolete word with dacoity, hooliganism by local goons and mafias and such other crimes mounting every day; safety vanishing with more than frequent accidents on account of ill-maintenance of age-old tracks, bridges, manned or unmanned level-crossings etc.

The budget does not present any concrete plan for redresses for any of these difficulties of common people ; the Minister has only reiterated a promise for renovation of 411 bridges, made in his last year’s budget, exposing his bankrupt verbosity. .

Secondly, before the budget, the railways have effected a significant change with the Tatkal reservation. The charge for Tatkal was raised from Rs 50 to 150, nothing much for businessmen and industrialists on hurricane tours, who favour and avail of this facility more frequently and particularly, but certainly a lot for the common people in need of a ticket in case of emergency. In addition, an increased 10 % of reserved berths have been brought under the Tatkal system, meaning an equal amount of loss in the normal reservation facilites for common passengers. The Railways have already robbed travelers of Rs 10,000 million through these measures; mind that, it was all before the budget in which “fare has not been raised” to bring in an ‘air of relief’ in people, as commented by the big ‘left’ ally of the UPA government and its Railway Minister!

About freight rationalization, even the industrialists had to admit that this reduction of 4000 commodities into 80, “irrespective of raw materials or finished goods for application of tariff will certainly push up the freight burden .. for all industrial raw materials and output, thus fuelling inflation in the economy”. The minister spoke of acquiring Rs 6500 million from the freight restructuring; as the media reported, higher officials of the railways admit an actual arrangement of pulling up Rs 30300 million from increased freight. Obviously this adds to the apprehension of inflation. The truth, the chambers of commerce and the media did not dare to admit, was that the burden of this ‘inflation’ will be passed onto people only.

Last, but not the least, this budget presents an attempt, not even veiled, to open this profiteering public sector to the private capital. A Rail Development Corporation Limited is being formed, to make way for private capital to creep in and even lay new railways. The Catering and Tourism departments have already been privatized. A ‘Land Development Authority’ has been framed to help build up on railways-owned lands commercial complexes with private investments. Above all, a wagon investment scheme has been introduced in container movement , under which the Container Corporation of the Railways that earned a profit of Rs 3680 million last year is being clipped and partly privatized. It has been hailed by none other than CII President, a leading representative of the industrialists.

In summary, then the rail budget has presented a face of the UPA government, that was to bring forth and has actually done so, hearty applauses from the different chambers of commerce. It is left to people to judge how far this budget is pro-people or popular.