Medha Patkar
Now,
she’s all set to do the same on-screen. Narmada Bachao Andolan’s Medha
Patkar will be making her film debut in the Jayprad Desai-directed
Marathi movie
Swarajya. This story of real people in real situations (the director
says the film is about greed and ambition, values and ideals, struggle
and survival) deals with the conflict faced by a journalist who refuses
to compromise on his values and finally launches his own newspaper. And
the fiery Medha is playing herself, doing what she has been doing since
years, only in front of the camera now!
What’s more, the film
also has two Oscar winners as part of its talented crew — Bhanu
Athaiya, the first Indian to have won an Oscar for her costumes for the
1982 film Gandhi and Resul Pookutty who bagged an Oscar for his sound
design for Slumdog Millionaire.
“Working for Swarajya is my
way of giving back to the city which has given me accolades. The script
and the passion of the director struck me, here’s someone who wants to
make a meaningful film in and about his motherland,” says Resul. Bhanu,
too, is excited about working on a film in her own mother tongue. “It
is a contemporary film set against the social and political background
of Maharashtra,” she adds.
Two Oscar winners behind the scenes and one real-life fiesty woman in front of it... well, here’s something to look out for!
Highlights of Railway Budget 2009-10
New
Delhi (PTI) The Railway Budget for 2009-10 on Friday left passenger
fares and freight rates untouched, in what is seen as the UPA
government's return gift to the people who gave it a second straight
term in office.
The following are the highlights of the Railway Budget:
* Passenger and freight rates across board left unchanged.
* Net revenue of Railways at Rs 8,121 crores in 2008-09.
* To pay higher dividend Rs 5,479 crores to Centre in FY'10.
* Tatkal charges reduced from Rs 150 to Rs 100.
* Ladies' specials in suburban trains during peak hours
* 'Izzat' monthly ticket of Rs 25 for up to 100 km travel.
* New coach factory at Kanchrapara in West Bengal.
* Cold storages for farmers to store vegetables and fruits.
* Talks to take over ailing wagon manufacturing units.
* 18,000 wagons to be acquired during the current year.
* Railway medical colleges along with rail hospitals on PPP.
Today's galleries:
Shruti Hassan's Luck, not by chanceMamata presents Railway Budget
* Student concession will cover Madrasa students.
* Special coaches for disabled and aged persons.
* 50 stations to be developed on world-class standard.
* 375 stations to be upgraded as 'Adarsh' stations with basic facilities - drinking water, toilets and ladies' dormitories.
* On-board availability of doctors in long distance trains.
* On-board infotainment services to be provided.
* 6,560 staff quarters to be constructed in 2009-10.
* High-capacity A/C double-decker trains to be introduced.
* 57 new trains to be introduced.
* 12 non-stop trains to be introduced.
* Accredited journalists to get 50 per cent rebate; also once a year with spouse.
* Proposes 1,000 MW power plant at Adra, a tribal area.
* Cash surplus of Rs 17,400 crores before dividend.
* Railways has investible surplus of Rs 12,681 crores.
* Annual plan expenditure pegged at Rs 36,336 crores.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/000200907031322.htm
I have already written. The Parliamentary SOP OPERA Act Two has just opened as Heated
exchanges between RJD and BJP members over the issue of tabling the
report of Liberhan Commission on Babri Masjid demolition on Friday
briefly disrupted the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha. The Diversion
game is effective with Surgical Precision thanks to UNPRECEDENTED Floor
Coordination amongst the different wings of Manusmriti Hegemony.
Last night , I talked to two young English journalists.
Shamik
is a RIGID supporter of Dr. Manmohan Singh and his Economic Agenda.
Like the most of the journalists working as CONTACT labour in Toilet
Press, Shamik is all GA GA to SEE INDIA Americanised. He claims that
India is next to America thanks to Open market. According to the young
Energetic guy, opening Public Sector would make things and services
available at low cost without any hackle. As it happened with Telecoms
and Internet!
But he strikingly opined that India is the second
Super Power after America as EUROPE is Mereged with United States of
America losing European Identity despite EURO and European community.
Europe lacks separate identity and is tagged with USA. He asks when
European countries have lost Identity and are treated as developed
countries and races, why India should lag behind!
Europe losing its Identity, is an EYE opening observation!
Thanks
SHAMIK. Once he told me that the Bengalies replicated ANGLO Saxons and
Bengalies are habitually Colonial. I agreed with him and used the
concept analysing Bengal and Bengalies!
Since the MARSHALL
Doctrine was used to block communism in Europe, since appeasement was
practiced in promoting Hitler and Mussolini, Europe lost Identity and
USA emerged Supreme Power gradually and hold the Post Modern Manusmriti
Apartheid Zionist Tri Iblis satanic Illuminati corporate Order in
COMMAND! Shamik is Historically correct!
Since EUROPE went to HELL as a former colony of United Kingdom, we must FOLLOW suit!
No,
it may not be a personal opinion. It is GENERAL Opinion of the
Brahaminical ruling Class replicated by Privileged CREAMY layer of the
ENSLAVED Indian Majority masses completely fallen ILL with intense
DEMENTIA and Personality Disorder supported by DRUG Addiction and
EFFLUENT Neo Social status across the Caste Line thanks to reservation
and quota!
The BRAIN Wash and Mind control is complete as Civil
society, Intelligentsia and Policy makers align with Media to destroy
the Aboriginal Indigenous Communities. May be I missed the item, have
you followed any parliamentary MINUTE questioning the agenda of
Economic survey and Mass Destruction! Rather our Representatives
engaged in Barbi Babri debate as it was PREPLANNED with excellent
TIMING to Guillotine all types of anti People Legislation!
What
is the after effects and reactions of Mamata mail? No body even noticed
that it is DESTINED to Hell with large scale Privatisation as the
ECONOMIC Survey hinted last evening! Rather the TOILET Media
highlighted the CELEBRATION all over Bengal and the GRUDGE in DEPRIVED
Bihar, It was projected as a WWF assignment in between Mamata and Lalu
paying some tribute to NITISH Kumar!
Stunningly, the LEFT posed MUM and dared not to UTTER a single word against the MASS SLAUGHTER!
I
talked to another young Journalist Nadim who warned me , PROVIDED any
or whatsoever National Resistance or nationwide Liberation Movement
emerges, all Parliamentary parties would stand UNIFIED to DESTROY the
Aboriginal Indigenous and Minority communities, the Black Untouchables!
Her you are!
Meanwhile, a demand was made by
two members in the Lok Sabha on Friday for sacking of the Union
Minister who allegedly tried to "pressurise" a judge of the Madras High
Court to sanction anticipatory bail to the accused in a marksheet
forgery case.
As soon
as the House met for the day, RJD chief Lalu Prasad demanded tabling of
the report, sparking protests from BJP members led by Ananth Kumar and
Gopinath Munde.
Mr. Prasad was supported by SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, even as the members in treasury benches watched silently.
Amid the din, Speaker Meira Kumar ordered that all remarks should be expunged and carried on with the Question Hour.
On the other hand, Anupam Gupta, Counsel for the Commission of Inquiry that went into the Babri Masjid demolition, has said that BJP leader L K Advani is "Achilles heel"
of Justice M S Liberhan and "inputs" suggest that the former Deputy
Prime Minister does not not seem to be among those "individually
indicted".
It was apparent that he (Justice Liberhan) wanted
to "extricate" Advani from the imbroglio of the demolition, Gupta said
in an interview to a magazine.
Gupta, who dissociated himself
from the Commission more than two years ago following differences with
Justice M S Liberhan on his approach to Advani, told the magazine that
"based on my decade-long association with Justice Liberhan, I am
convinced that Advani is his Achilles heel.
"This, I would vouch for, regardless of what the report might actually say about Advani."
He
said the real test of Justice Liberhan's report would be his analysis
of L K Advani's role and responsibility in the demolition of the Babri
Masjid.
"Initial media reports and other inputs suggest that
while other leading lights of the Sangh parivar have been individually
indicted, Advani does not not seem to be among them," he said.
I
am DISCONNECTED even now as my Telephone number 91-33-25659551 remains
DEAD since Sunday Accident in Sodepur. Demonstration and Road Blocked
restored electricity and water supply. But Land Line remains EMERGENCY
service no more thanks to Telecoms Revolution and SAM PITRODA. My Net
is connected by cable. All land line phone numbers with Exchange number
2565 remain dead all along Barasat road in Sodepur and the new
Telephone line is required.
Please call me on my Cell Phone 919903717833.
It is heavy load on my Cell Phones as some one or other calls it and the CELL goes off so frequently, please bear with me.
This
Morning I was glad to say that ANAND BAZAR Patrica published the
Disinvest Agenda details with Graphic presentation of Highlights of the
DESTRUCTIVE Economic Survey Presented by Washington Slave and Key
Stone of Indian Incorporation Anti people Government. Patrika, of
course, emphasised on the CONTINUITY of Reforms and did Celebrate it.
I
told my friends in South, Mumbai, New Delhi and GUJARAT that we are
rather lucky that Mainstream News daily with a Circulation over 14 lacs
published the Economic survey as it is. It would help us to mobilise
our people. I was amazed to interact with scores of our people well
educated and well placed that they simply SKIPPED the item as none of
them happens to be concerned with any Social or Political Liability.
They are totally IMMERSED in ACUTE Economism and it is DRUG Addiction
of a worse kind!
The state power treats our people SUB HUMAN and
denies us of OUR BASIC Human Rights! They love to see us STRIVING,
DISPLACED, Unemployed and Confused, They would Never recognise the
nationalities and identities. They will never allow the Nature and
nature associated people to SURVIVE. All zones of Protest have been
handed over to CIA and Mossad. They are FREE to declare ENTIRE Nation
DISTURBED as Mrs Indira Gandhi did in 1975 declaring EMERGENCY. They
may brand any community TERRORIST as a whole as the did with the SIKHS
after Operation blue star and it was ETHNIC CLEANSING SIKH GENOCIDE.
They may declare all nationalities and identities EXTREMIST and adopt
ZERO TOLERANCE and MILITARY Option as they have done in North east and
Kashmir and Danda karany and EXERCISING AFPSA in Lalgarh! They may hand
over entire country to Military or United states of America and Israel.
They try their best to INVOKE a HELL in Indian Subcontinent. The DESTINATION is achieved in Pakistan and Srilanka!
Now they tries it in INDIA.
The
India Incorporation Government of India and the POLICY makers treat us
as CONSUMER deprived of CITIZENSHIP and nationality as well as
Identity. They treat us all the people, the HAVE NOTS, deprived of
Purchasing power in the OPEN market and retail chain as SUBHUMAN
Underclasses and Out castes with a status of Permanent BEGGARS. They
just PITY us.
Please BE AWARE of the PITY!
Please Be AWARE of ALMS!
Economic
Times and MINT also published the Survey with details along with
Business Standard, Financial Times, Hindu Business line and other
Economic dailies.
Most of the mainstream English as well as
Vernacular Electronic or Print media Diluted the Economic survey and
projected only the FLAGSHIP Welfare Programmes!
For Example, The
Telegraph skipped the item on front page and rather PUBLISHED a HALF
page article by KPS GILL glorifying the Military Option adopted in
Assam, Kashmir, Punjab and North East.
Just read the article!
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...Nonsense continues to be given wide publicity, not only by
ill-informed ‘intellectuals’, but, astonishingly, by the Marxist party
leadership as well, even as the threat’s magnitude is denied...
K.P.S. GILL
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http://www.telegraphindia.com/section/frontpage/index.jsp
Railway
Minister Mamata Banerjee's budget proposals presented in the Lok Sabha
on Friday did not include private sector participation in running of
passenger trains on tourist routes, as suggested by the Economic Survey
2008-09.
"Private
entry into provision of passenger trains must be allowed to and from
all the tourist destinations," the survey tabled in Parliament a day
earlier had said.
"About
a dozen tourist routes could be identified and a single licence issued
to private companies to provide passenger service to one or all
routes," it added.
The
Indian Railways have allowed the entry of private companies to run
luxury trains like the Palace on Wheels, Royal Rajasthan on Wheels and
Deccan Odyssey to specific locations.
These trains are operated in partnership with the state governments on a revenue-sharing basis.
Ms.
Banerjee, however, is in favour of the public-private partnership (PPP)
model for setting up of electric multiple units (EMU) factory,
development of integrated commercial complexes, modernisation of
Railways' printing presses and setting up of logistics parks.
Meanwhile, Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee accused Chhatradhar Mahato of providing “an open
platform” to Maoists in Lalgarh and backed his home secretary who had
said the tribal leader should be arrested.
“Chhatradhar Mahato is not a Maoist
but his People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities is providing an
open platform to the Maoists to carry on their activities in Lalgarh,”
the chief minister told the Assembly today.
Mahato had said if the government
wanted talks with the Lalgarh tribals, they should drop plans to arrest
him and pull out the security forces from the area. His statement came
two days after home secretary Ardhendu Sen said Mahato should be
arrested. Sen also ruled out talks.
Bhattacharjee said: “There was
nothing wrong in the home secretary’s statement when he said Mahato was
not officially connected with Maoists.” But still, Mahato would be
arrested, the chief minister said.
While Mamata Bannerjee was busy in Railway Budget, West Bengal assembly has witnessed an uproar over the arrest of human rights activist Medha Patkar near Debra in West Midnapore district.
Opposition
leader and Trinamool Congress MLA Partha Chatterjee raised a point of
order and questioned the arrest of Medha. "How can the government
arrest her at Debra which is about 80 kilometre from Lalgarh," asked
Chatterjee.
He also demanded immediate release of the rights
activist and said that the government had already established a reign
of terror and was trying to suppress all the protests against
state-sponsored terrorism.
Police sources said that Medha
along with her followers had a plan to go to Lalgarh where police
action against the Maoists was still on and where prohibitory order
under section 144 Cr.PC was still in force.
Meanwhile, the
SUCI, an ally of Trinamool Congress condemned the arrest of Medha. SUCI
state secretary Provas Ghosh has said in a statement that the police
had resorted to lathicharge at Debra in which a number of journalists
received serious injuries.
Ghosh also demanded withdrawal of police action in Lalgarh.
The
fire brand politician reincarnated as the Indian Railway Minister,
Mamata Banerjee presented her third budget in the Parliament and took
on the challenge of Public Private Partnership head on. Indian Railways
is looking at developing 50 world class stations as public private
partnership projects. In addition she proposes to set up committees to
turn social projects into economically viable proposition. The strength
of her Budget speech this year is perhaps best assessed on the
parameters of global-local approach and the profits that show up in
Indian Railways’ balance sheet next year. On the other hand,Dismissing
Mamata Banerjee's Railway Budget as "impractical", RJD chief Lalu
Prasad Yadav said it was based on "his achievements" when he was at the
helm.Lalu added that he had questioned the need for issuing a white
paper on the situation of the ministry during his tenure.
BJP
on Friday described the Railway Budget as "unrealistic and based on
fantasy" and accused Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee of ignoring
vital aspects like security and expansion activities.
Terming it a “mixed’ railway
budget, West Bengal’s ruling Left Front chairman Biman Bose criticised
the privatisation schemes introduced in the new budgetary plans by
Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday.
“It’s a mixed budget and the
thrust is on more and more privatisation. We are opposed to rampant
privatisation schemes,” Bose told reporters in Kolkata.
He said: “As far as I know,
there’s been no mention in the railway budget about more than 125
projects which are now pending with the railways. The minister also has
not mentioned anything about filling up the existing vacancies in the
railways.
“As this budget, tabled for the
current financial year, is signalling a growth of privatisation in the
Indian railways, I think it would not be very good for our future.”
Senior Communist Party of India
(CPI) leader and member of Lok Sabha from West Bengal Gurudas Dagupta
said that Banerjee had scrupulously followed privatisation policy of
the union government.
“For the first time, the railway land, which is the land for people, will be used for joint venture and private sector business.
“She is introducing privatisation
in every sphere of the railways. It’s a prelude to gripping
privatisation of the Indian Railways,” Dasgupta added.
While the communists opposed
Banerjee’s railway budget, the Congress leaders in the state welcomed
it saying the minister has presented a “pro-people budget”.
“We’re happy to announce that
Mamata Banerjee today (Friday) has placed a historic and a pro-people
budget,” state Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Manas Bhuniya
told reporters in Kolkata.
Trinamool Congress senior leader
Partha Chattopadhyay also appreciated the budget. He said Banerjee has
successfully lived up to the expectations of the common people who had
reposed their faith in her in the recent-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
“This budget will not only benefit
West Bengal alone but it will help the entire nation in terms of
developing connectivity. She (Banerjee) has given equal attention to
all aspects of the railways irrespective of any particular region,”
Chattopadhyay said.
The most credible introduction to
the Railway Minister comes from none other than Rahul Gandhi. The
Gandhi icon said, Mamata is a people’s person- not that Ratan Tata
would be ready to vouch for Rahul’s word on Mamata. What stays
undisputed however is that the veteran politician’s most significant
personality streak is ‘populism’. Yes, Mamata Banerjee is a populist
leader and hence the right person to push UPA’s ‘aam aadmi’ agenda-
within the constraints of budget outlays that is. She is also the right
person to cut Left forces to size- a fact duly established in just
concluded General Elections.
As for the railways, Banerjee
promised a judicious mix of austerity, social justice and sops and
seems to have missed out on balanced regional impetus. Nevertheless
Banerjee’s 60% concession to students; emphasis on ‘Janta khana’; train
tickets disbursement from 5000 post offices; mobile ticket vending
machines- all these establish beyond doubt that the lady keeps a tab on
the pulse of the masses.
Not long back Mamata Banerjee was
considered as a ‘political oddball’, says a BBC report. Tata’s Nano and
the battle that ensued in Singur almost proved to be a rebirth for her.
Mamata to develop 50 world class stations on PPP basisNo increase in passenger or freight fares; SMS
updates for passengers on waiting list; 60% concession to students, new
point to point fast trains and 50 world class stations are the high
points of the Railway Budget 2009. Banerjee presented her third budget
in the Parliament on Friday after a gap of eight years.
Highlights of Railway Budget 2009:
1.25 pm: Mamata Banerjee concludes Railway Budget 2009; Parliament to debate and pass it before July 31st
1.24 pm: No increase in passenger or freight fares
1.20 pm: Yuva Trains for youngsters at Rs 200 for 1500 km distance
1.18
pm: 12 new point to point non- stop ‘Turanto’ fast trains announced
from - New Howrah-Mumbai; Chennai-Delhi; Delhi-Pune; Howrah-Delhi;
Kolkata-Amritsar
1.15 pm: Mamata’s world class stations to
include - Pune, Howrah, Nagpur, CST Mumbai, New Delhi, Lucknow,
Amritsar, Tirupati, Bangalore, Bhopal, Goa Junction, Matura, Mangalore,
Kochi, Chandigarh, Chennai
1.10 pm: SMS updates for passengers on waiting list
1.05 pm: 60 % fare concession for all students
1.00 pm: ‘Turanto’ – a new point to point train announced
12.59 pm: Scheme Izzat: Rs 25 monthly passes for 100 km train travel
12.57 pm: AC- double decker coaches for inter-city trains
12.55 pm: Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor to be constructed like the Trade corridor
12.54 pm: Aircraft like toilets in every train that goes beyond two hours
12. 47 pm: Integrated security system at 150 sensitive stations
12. 46 pm: MPs invited to identify locations for computerized ticket vending spots
12.45 pm: At least one doctor on every long distance train
12. 44 pm: Expert committees to look into economic viability of social projects
12.42 pm: Review of Centre- State cost sharing of Railway projects
12.42 pm: Train tickets from 5000 post offices
12.40 pm: 800 new locations for ticket reservations
12. 35 pm: Multi-functional facilities like bookstores and STD booths to be made available at train stations
12.32 pm: Automated laundries, ticket vending machines on cards
12.32 pm: Automated laundries, ticket vending machines on cards
12.29 pm: Multi-functional compelexes at 29 stations
12.25 pm: 50 World Class stations including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata
12.25 pm: Priority to Tier II cities
12.21 pm: Indian Railways must set an example in terms of inclusive growth
12.19 pm: Mamata: Railway Budget 2009 will be of the people; for the people and by the people
12.15 pm: Mamata tables her third Railway Budget in Parliament
12.04 PM: Banerjee expected to strike balance between austerity, amenities and new projects
11.30 am: Mamata reaches Parliament to set the ball rolling for Railway Budget 2009
Highlights of 2009 Railway Budget:
Headlines Reactions Videos Image gallery Message Boards
http://news.in.msn.com/business/budget2009/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3069015
Mamata's white paper will expose Lalu: Nitish
Patna
(PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said Railway Minister
Mamata Banerjee's promise to bring out a white paper on the present
financial status of the Railways would 'expose' her predecessor, Lalu
Prasad.
It
would unravel the truth behind his claims that the Railways earned huge
profits successively during his five-year tenure, Mr. Kumar, a former
railway minister, told reporters.
"The
decline shown in the cash surplus and increase in the operating ratio
from 70 to 92.5 per cent proposed for the current fiscal will bring to
the light the facts relating to the Railways earning profits," Mr.
Kumar said.
Mr. Kumar had earlier demanded a probe into alleged jugglery of figures in profits shown between 2004 and 2009.
He also appreciated Ms. Banerjee for scaling down targets of Railways and promising realistically.
"It is clear departure from Lalu Prasad's
budgetary speeches which remained a bundle of promises much beyond the
targets possible to be achieved," he said.
Mr. Kumar was averse to the continuation
of the 'Tatkal' scheme with Ms. Banerjee proposing to reduce the period
of advance booking of tickets under the scheme from five days to two
days.
Mr. Kumar also called for early completion of all the pending rail projects in Bihar.
"Banerjee's vision 2020 for railways is based on the
achievements made during my five year's stint as Railway Minister," he
said.
When asked if she read out a budget presented by him earlier, Prasad said, "She did not present the right budget of Lalu."
Faulting Banerjee's decision to run double-decker
trains and start new non-stop point to point (Duronto) train services
he said, "They are impractical."
Reacting sharply to Banerjee's decision of issuing a
white paper, Prasad said, "I do not know what is in her mind but there
will be confusion due to this white paper thin.This is
shortsightedness. But what fear one can have when he is right."
"Have I committed any fraud or is there any stealth
that I should fear. Nothing was hidden in railway budgets for five
years that I presented. They were studied by IIM, Ahmedabad, audited by
CAG as also Railways. But if any body has any confusion, he can correct
it," he added.
Prasad also accused Banerjee of discriminating
against Bihar, saying that railway stations of his states do not figure
in the list of model stations or the route of Duronto trains as
announced in the rail budget.
Lalu says Mamata 'has a complex'
New
Delhi (PTI) Out in the cold in the new dispensation, RJD chief Lalu
Prasad on Friday sought to embarrass Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee
on the rail budget saying she had used his achievements in the Ministry
to build her case.
Mr.
Prasad, the former Railway Minister who was not preferred by the
Congress leadership in the new government, also accused her of
neglecting Bihar in the budget.
In a
combative mood, Mr. Prasad said he was not bothered by the Minister's
declaration of coming out with a white paper on the organisational,
operational and financial situation and performance of Railways in the
past five years when Mr. Prasad was at the helm.
"This is not an embarrassment (that a
white paper is coming out). Let her bring out white paper. I am not
bothered," he told reporters after Ms. Banerjee presented the rail
budget in Lok Sabha.
"Is this a budget? She has just read out what I had announced during my stint...She suffers from a complex," he said.
Mr. Prasad claimed there was "nothing new"
in the budget and that she had just read out what he had prepared
during his stint. "She has used my achievements as a base to build her
vision," he said.
Maoists issue double blast reminder to state |
PRONAB MONDAL |
 |
Policemen at a blast site near the Binpur I BDO’s office on Thursday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya |
Lalgarh, July 2: Suspected Maoists
today detonated two improvised explosive devices barely a hundred
metres from the office of the Binpur I block development officer hours
before two state government secretaries were to hold a meeting.
The two simultaneous blasts in Lalgarh
town — the devices were planted at the side of a metalled road leading
from Jhitka forest to the town — at 7.30am did not cause injuries but
startled the administration that has 900 state and central security
personnel deployed in the area right now.
A policeman standing nearby was so startled that he involuntarily pulled the trigger releasing a bullet.
“We are investigating how the IEDs was
planted so close to the BDO’s office,” said Praveen Kumar, DIG,
Midnapore range. “They may have been planted last night as the area had
been sanitised by the police and nothing had been found.”
Police sources said though patrolling had been done routinely, there was no police posting in that area last night.
The police said the IEDs were detonated
by Maoists who were hiding in bushes about 200m away. They could have
fled into the Jhitka forest.
“This has been a serious lapse and we have to be more careful at night,” said a police officer.
“The Maoists obviously took advantage of
the situation and detonated the IEDs to drive home two messages. One,
that it would be hazardous to dismiss them lightly and that they are
still a force to reckon with. Second, that they are opposed to the
government’s efforts to start development work here.”
The meeting of two state government
secretaries was, however, held at the BDO’s office as scheduled. “Our
schedule was not upset by the blasts,” said Sourav Das, the secretary
of the public health engineering department. “The blasts were meant to
create panic among the people.”
Two other senior officers, Subrata Gupta,
the managing director of the West Bengal Industrial Development
Corporation, and revenue secretary C.M. Bachawat, who were sent to
Lalgarh to check on the progress of irrigation projects, travelled to
different areas in mine-protected vehicles.
Immediately after the blasts, 400 central
police personnel fanned out in the Jhitka forest. The troops combed the
jungles in the rain right up to Kantapahari, covering a stretch of 6km.
No Maoist was caught.
In Lalgarh, the police increased security after the blasts and put up checkposts where cars were stopped and searched.
In Bankura, an IED wrapped in plastic was
found at Tantidanga on the Piralgari-Sarenga road near Sarenga police
station this afternoon, reports our special correspondent.
Local residents alerted a police team this afternoon after spotting a device with wires sticking out of it.
Yesterday, three kilograms of explosives packed in a metal container was found planted at Khayerpahari.
After yesterday’s find, a n anti-sabotage drive was carried out by the police from dawn to dusk today. |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090703/jsp/bengal/story_11190548.jsp
Mayawati at it again; Fresh trouble for Varun Gandhi over hate speeches
Lucknow:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi's reported hate speeches
have landed him in fresh trouble with the Uttar Pradesh government
Friday sanctioning legal action against him for promoting communal
disharmony.
"We have given the nod to
the Pilibhit district administration to start proceedings against Varun
under the Section 153 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that deals with
promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race,
place of birth, residence, language etc., and doing acts prejudicial to
maintenance of harmony," a state home department official told IANS.
The
approval for initiating legal penal action against Varun Gandhi, who
courted controversy with his alleged hate speeches during the run-up to
the recent Lok Sabha elections, was taken after consulting experts of
the law department, he added.
According to police, a charge
sheet was prepared against Varun Gandhi after forensic experts
confirmed that three CDs of the speeches he allegedly delivered in his
constituency in March were genuine.
Tata Motors to drive in Nano to Africa in 2010Abuja,
Nigeria: Tata Motors, India's largest auto maker, will introduce its
small car Nano - considered the world's cheapest - in Nigeria within
next 18 months, ahead of its planned launch in Europe.
The
car would be available for about NGN 360 for the base model, same as
the price in the Indian markets. The car carries a price tag of Rs 1.23
lakh to Rs 1.72 lakh (ex-showroom) in the Indian capital for three
variants.
"Tata Motors will make the Nano available in Nigeria
in the next one year to one and a half years," a senior official of
Tata Africa Nigeria, Sudeep Ray, said.
"The launching of the
Nano was branded everyman behind the wheel and will benefit Nigerians
much as public transport systems like metro are not available here.
"The
car (Nano) will cost NGN 357,480 (about Rs 1.16 lakh) in Nigeria, which
is much less than the price of most second hand saloon cars sold here,"
Ray said. The cost of an used car usually starts at NGN 500,000 in the
country.
Ray, however, declined to give details whether the
'cheapest' car of the world be assembled in Nigeria or it would be sold
as a completely-built-unit.
A Tata Motors spokesperson from
India said: "The company has said that the Tata Nano can be marketed in
other countries, but timelines, modes and countries are yet to be
finalised."
Earlier in March, Tata Motors had showcased the European version of the Nano, which the company planned to launch by 2011.
Conceived
in 2003, Tata Motors had launched the much- hyped 'cheapest' car in
India on March 23 this year. The car has cost over Rs 2,000 crore to
the company.
Tata cars, buses and trucks are being marketed in
many countries in Europe, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, South East
Asia and Latin America.
Budget 09’s possible impact on personal finance? July 3rd, 2009 For the
actual event we need to wait till the first week of July 09 and the
wishes are innumerable for a few columns of print, though we have
attempted to present a handful in one of the earlier posts. In this
post we take a look at what the industry and experts have to say
regarding what can be expected out of the upcoming budgetary speech in
the first week of July 09 from the perspective of personal finance. There are wishes and there are expectations and then
there are events. For the actual event we need to wait till the first
week of July 09 and the wishes are innumerable for a few columns of
print, though we have attempted to present a handful in one of the
earlier posts. In this post we take a look at what the industry and
experts have to say regarding what can be expected out of the upcoming
budgetary speech in the first week of July 09 from the perspective of
personal finance.
Personal Income Tax
Changes are expected to increase the minimum slab
for income tax charges. Rs. 2.5 L seems to be the figure in the minds
of the decision makers. Also the tax benefit from Section 80C
investments may be increased to Rs. 2 L from the present Rs.1 L . An
infrastructure supporting investment may be part of this 2 L limit.
The Pension Development and Regulatory is also lobbying to get tax benefits for investment in the New Pension Plan.
Insurance Sector
The IRDA is aggressive in its reforms process by
itself. It has recently passed regulations to make sales persons
support the customers throughout the term of the insurance plan by
linking their long term commissions to the services offered.
As such the budget may only have to talk
about increasing the investment limits of the foreign partners. Are
there talks of LIC going public soon? Now, that can be a big step in a
positive direction in this budget, as implementation could take a
couple of years.
Savings Schemes
Typical Government sponsored savings schemes are the
EPF and Postal Savings. Both these need changes. EPF has fixed this
year’s rate at 8.5%. EPF office has said that all their reserves have
been exhausted and hence cannot increase their payout rates. Postal
savings had been at 8.5% for a long time now (Investment doubling in 8
years and 6 months). Their investment portfolio and management has
always been a mystery.
Transparency is the need of the hour as well
as there needs to be a conscious avoidance of recurrence of anything
like the US64 Scheme of the erstwhile Unit Trust of India. This
situation has been avoided in the NPS, it being a Unit Based Scheme. It
is probably the right time now, in a down turn, to make these corpuses
open to transparent & professional management.
Gas dispute: Anil Ambani moves SC against Mukesh's RIL
Mumbai:
Anil Ambani group company RNRL Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking
modification in the Bombay High Court order to make binding the gas
supply from Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries.
RNRL
moved the Supreme Court two days after RIL said it would move the apex
court on the Bombay High Court order that upheld Anil Ambani group's
plea for 28 mmscmd of gas at a rate of $2.34 mmbtu but asked the two
sides to negotiate an agreement for this.
"After
categorically ruling in our favour, court cannot ask us again to sit
down with a party which is not willing to sit across...Not now, or even
in the past," Reliance Natural Resources lawyer Mukul Rohatgi told
reporters her.
He said a special leave petition has been
filed challenging the last part of the high court order asking RNRL to
"again negotiate" after "ruling in our favour in terms of price of gas,
tenure and quantity".
Left Front routed in municipal polls in West BengalKolkata:
Close on the heels of the Lok Sabha election reverses, the Marxist
bastion in West Bengal crumbled further on Wednesday with Trinamool
Congress and Congress combine winning 13 municipalities among 16 that
went to the polls on Sunday.
Nine of these municipalities were under the Left control, while six were under Congress and Trinamool Congress.
A new municipality was created at Dankuni in Hooghly district.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front managed to win in only three and that too in a tough contest.
Trinamool
Congress wrested key municipalities like Asansol Municipal Corporation,
Dum Dum, South Dum Dum, Uluberia, Mahestala, Madhyamgram and
Rajpur-Sonarpur in south Bengal districts which were traditionally Left
strongholds.
In a ward in Dum Dum, Left Front lost for the first time in 48 years while it had last lost in Asansol in 1980.
Trinamool
along with Congress retained control in Kulti and Egra municipalities,
while Congress held sway over the Kaliaganj and Islampur civic bodies
in north Bengal.
The Left Front won in Rajarhat-Gopalpur in the
eastern fringes of the city, Gangarampur in South Dinajpur and Mal in
Jalpaiguri district, with the last having been wrested from a
Congress-Trinamool board.
The CPI(M) also retained the Siliguri Mahukuma Parishad defeating Congress-Trinamool alliance by 4-3 seats.
The
Trinamool Congress also won a by-election to Kolkata Corporation's ward
no 63 which fell vacant after the death of TC leader and former Union
Minister Ajit Panja.
An upbeat Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee
said: "The CPI(M) government should draw a lesson from this verdict and
step down. Despite their terror, the people have once again supported
us within one and half month of the Lok Sabha poll."
An
unexpected reaction came maverick CPI(M) leader and Transport Minister
Subhas Chakraborty who said: "Can anyone cling to power forcibly if the
people don't not want it?"
State Congress working president
Subrata Mukherjee said the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government "should
quit accepting the people's verdict".
The Assembly elections in West Bengal are due in 2011.
Fuel price hike impact: Truckers to up rentals 6 to 12%New
Delhi: The increase in diesel prices has raised truckers' operational
costs 4 to 8 per cent, depending on the age and make of the truck.
Diesel and tyres constitute 90 per cent of a truck's operating expenses
on inter-state operations. Truck transport accounts for 78 per cent of
good transported across India.
The
rest may follow next week. "Truck rentals might go up 10 to 12 per cent
probably from Monday," said Sanjiv Khanna, owner of a mid-sized
Delhi-based transport company Delhi Modinagar Exp Transport.
There
are doubts, however, whether truckers will be able to sustain this
price rise. "How much the market, which is already in the midst of a
slowdown, will be able to sustain this rise remains to be seen," said S
P Singh, coordinator, Indian Foundation of Transport Research and
Training.
Operators agree. "With diesel prices going up,
operational costs have increased but the rise in rentals may not be
huge owing to the slowdown in demand, " said Chiranjeet Singh,
president, All India Motor Transport Congress, a truckers'
association.
"Input costs have gone up, but a rise in prices
will depend on market forces," added Chittaranjan Dass, vice-president
of another truckers' lobby, the All India Confederation of Goods
Vehicle Owners Association.
Truck rentals dropped 4 to 6 per
cent over the May 6 to June 5 period on trunk routes owing to sharp
declines agri-produce cargo and the tapering off the wheat procurement
season.Agri-produce accounts for over 40 per cent of goods transported
by truck.
Business Standard Conversion, reconversion led to Kandhamal riots: CommissionBhubaneswar:
Conversion and re-conversion were among the major factors which led to
the riots in Orissa's Kandhamal district last year, a judicial
commission probing the violence has said.
"Sources
of the violence were deeply rooted in land disputes, conversion and
re-conversion and fake certificate issues," Justice S C Mohapatra,
heading the one-man panel, said in his interim report on the violence
in Kandhamal which claimed 43 lives besides damaging many houses and
churches.
He, however, did not elaborate on the conversions and reconversions issue.
"Suspicion
among the scheduled tribe and scheduled caste inhabitants of Kandhamal
is the main cause of riots with the tribals suspecting that 'Pano'
dalits were capturing their land through fraudulent means," Justice
Mohapatra said.
Besides the issues of land and conversion and
re-conversion, Justice Mohapatra said fake certificates were another
major factor that created discontent among Kandha tribals who
constitute 52 per cent of Kandhamal's population.
Justice
Mohapatra, who submitted the interim report on July 1, said the
government should take steps immediately to remove differences between
the communities.
"I know it will take at least two years to
complete inquiry, but interim report will help the government to make
immediate intervention," he said.
Justice Mohapatra said in
his 28-page report that most Kandha tribals were uneducated and were
under the impression that quotas meant for them were being availed of
by 'Pana' dalits, who were Christians.
This was another factor
behind tribal anger, he said suggesting the state government expedite
freeing of tribal land in possession of non-tribals, take up fake
certificate cases and remain vigilant to conversion and re-conversion.
"Once the basic issues are addressed, the Kandhamal problem could be solved," he said.
Replying to a question, Justice Mohapatra said he had not blamed anybody for the violence in the interim report.
Sources,
however, said the commission which was set up on September 3 last year
could fix responsibility for the violence on any organisation or
government body.
In the interim report, Justice Mohapatra had
not blamed any religious body or the CPI (Maoist) which claimed
responsibility for killing of VHP leader Laxmananda Saraswati on August
23 last year.
Killing of Saraswati and four of his associates had
triggered large-scale violence in Kandhamal which evoked condemnation
from many quarters in the country and abroad.
Air India employees walk out of work for two hours New
Delhi/Mumbai: Notwithstanding a warning by Air India management,
employees of the national carrier "walked out" of work for two hours
this afternoon as part of their nationwide protest against delayed
payment of salaries.
The protest,
called by Aviation Industry Employees Guild (AIEG), Air Corporation
Employees Union (ACEU) and some other unions, saw employees coming out
of their offices in Delhi and Mumbai and stage demonstrations from one
pm besides threatening to boycott their meetings with the management.
Around
300 employees, carrying red flags, assembled infront of the old
terminal shouting slogans in Delhi against the management and demanding
immediate payment of salaries.
"The government cannot defer the
salary as per Payment of Wages Act. It must pay the salary by July ten.
The compnay is not following rules and regulations and taking decisions
which is not in the interests of employees," J B Kadiyan, General
Secretary of ACEU, said.
In Mumbai, AIEG General Secretary,
George Abraham, said, "We are staging a walk-out and demonstration for
two hours as the management has failed to honour its commitment given
to the unions to pay our June salaries by today."
There were no reports of disruption of AI services from the airport due to the protest.
The
workers went ahead with their strike despite a Staff Notice issued
earlier in the day by AI warning that "any participation in the illegal
strike would be viewed seriously and appropriate action, including
deduction of wages and withdrawal of Productivity-Linked Incentive till
further orders, will be taken." .
Warning them of "firm" action
if flights were disrupted and passengers inconvenienced, the staff
notice said the agitation by the Joint Action Forum would violate the
Industrial Disputes Act and "tantamount to illegal strike".
Thursday
night, AI CMD Arvind Jadhav had written to the employees that besides
wages and salary payments every month, fuel and bank liabilities like
interest and principal payments, have to be paid on time.
However, the unions blamed the management of "going back on their word" to pay the salaries by Friday.
The
unions had called off their proposed strike on June 30 after the
management agreed to pay salaries of 70 per cent of workers by Friday.
They were protesting the earlier decision of the management to defer
the June salary by the middle of this month.
Kadiyan alleged
that the company is being "damaged systematically by certain vested
interests who want to sell Air India off. This we will never allow."
He
also demanded a CBI enquiry into the Air India's plan to buy 68
aircraft for Rs 6,000 crore when its annual budget is Rs 7,000 crore.
"The
total budget of Air India is Rs 7,000 crore and then why it decided to
buy aircraft worth Rs 6,000 crore. Air India has plans to purchase 24
aircraft and Indian Airlines has plan to buy 43 aircraft. But later Air
India changed its fleet plan and within 24 weeks firmed a plan to buy
68 aircraft," he said.
EXCLUSIVE | MAMATA INTERVIEW
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I have done everything for all the states: Mamata
Diptosh Majumdar / CNN-IBN
 Published on Fri, Jul 03, 2009 at 20:53, Updated on Fri, Jul 03, 2009 at 21:13 in Politics section
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee
on Friday presented a people-friendly Budget leaving passenger fares
and freight charges unchanged. She also introduced over 50 new trains
and new ticket schemes. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN's National
Affairs Editor Diptosh Majumdar, Mamata explained that she tried to
please every part of the country. Diptosh Majumdar: Lalu Prasad
has not liked your Budget. Do you think Bihar was getting pampered
because of successive ministers from the state, and that you have
changed that pattern? Mamata Banerjee (speaking in Hindi): No,
no. We are like brother and sister. Every state we consider our
neighbouring… sometimes one gets less and sometimes more. We balance it
out. I like Bihar -- Laluji, Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav -- I love all of them. Diptosh Majumdar: What about the fact that you seem to be coming closer to the Gandhi family today? You remembered Rajiv Gandhi in your speech; you have given lot for Rai Bareli. Mamata Banerjee: I
have not given anything. The leaders of the country cannot say give me
this and that but you have to take care of all. I have given so many
trains to Northeast--Prime Minister's constituency is there. For Pranab Mukherjee I gave Farakka-Delhi (train). There are some people who are working day and
night for the country and you have to take care of them. It is not they
will ask you… it's for you to decide. Diptosh Majumdar: How much is Prime Minister involved in your Budget making? Mamata Banerjee: All… without his blessing how can I do all this. I am very grateful and obliged to him. Diptosh Majumdar: What do you have to say to your critics who say West Bengal has benefited from you? Mamata Banerjee: I
have 20 MPs. We are the first allies of this government. I have given
all the seats to all the states. For 15 days I worked day and night up
to morning 4 O' clock. I have done everything for all the states,
wherever the opportunity is there. And after doing work for all states if I don't do anything for my state then I will lose face. I am very outspoken and I am very transparent. I said one project for my constituency. Diptosh Majumdar: More than 100
municipal elections are coming up in West Bengal. How many are you
going to win? 90? That is what your people are saying. Mamata Banerjee: It will be a sweep, a complete sweep. Maa, maati, manush
(will win). Two words are very common in this word: maa or mother, two
maati or soil. My motherland--maati means motherland. Manush is human
being. Diptosh Majumdar: How long will the Railway Minister remain a Minister in Delhi? Will she give two budgets or three? Mamata Banerjee: I cannot say all these things… there is no reply to ifs and buts--but I will continue to work for the people till I am alive.
ET Now and Times Now to present live Budget09 Times Audience Network, the online video arm of the Times Group, will be simulcasting the live budget feed for ET Now and Times Now on July 6. It will be a never-done-before event in the Indian electronic medium's history with TAN coming together with Microsoft, Facebook, Akamai and the television properties of the Times Group. Users will get live coverage of both ET Now and Times Now as well as on-demand videos, live newsfeeds, special updates and will also be able to interact with Facebook friends--all from a single show window. And with Facebook Connect and Live Stream Box, they will be able to take part in real-time conversations with their favourite TV anchors. The event will be hosted at http://budgetlive.economictimes.com "We're pleased to collaborate with the Times Group on their coverage of the national budget," said Meenal Balar, International Marketing Manager at Facebook. "As discussions in New Delhi get under way, we hope Indians will share their comments and opinions with their friends on Facebook." Sanjay Sinha, Director - Enterprise Evangelism, Microsoft India says, "Users will experience unique features such as on-demand videos, picture-in-picture feature to watch highlights while watching the live stream, powered by Silverlight." The event will be powered by Akamai, the global leader in live and on-demand streaming delivery. Sanjay Singh, MD, Akamai India, says they can "guarantee that viewers will get a flawless, high quality, live streaming experience." Sunil Rajshekhar, TIMES INTERNET LIMITED, President and COO, says, with the Live Budget show, we'll be bringing together the strengths of industry leaders in the content and technology space.The event is a continuation of our leadership and innovation in the online video space. It also marks the entry of ETNow onto TAN and will help expand our efforts in proliferating rich media consumption."
Riding the ‘earning horse’: Indian Railways |
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Indian Railways is the world’s largest employer and
one of the biggest and busiest rail networks in the world, carrying
some 17 million people and more than one million tonnes of freight
daily. It was, however, until very recently, a loss-making
organisation, which was heading for bankruptcy. Starting his term in
2004 with a budget of just $200 million with which to save the national
institution, India’s Minister of Railways Lalu Prasad engineered a
dramatic turnaround. Last year, Indian Railways’ revenue came to $6
billion.
Indian Railways is one of INSEAD’s
biggest executive education clients, and the Minister visited the
school’s Asia campus as part of his tour of Singapore and Malaysia.
During his visit to INSEAD, he told a gathering of MBA participants,
alumni and executives about his strategy for bringing the rail network
into the 21st century.
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Minister Lalu Prasad |
Flouting prescriptions to privatise Indian Railways,
retrench staff, and increase passenger and freight fares by 20 per cent
in every budget, Prasad instead chose to keep on board 1.4 million
employees and 1.1 million pensioners, reduced fares by up to 45 per
cent, and - while refusing to privatise the core business of Indian
Railways - started public-private partnerships in some peripheral
areas.
“We have broken the myth that whenever any
government organisation runs into losses that you privatise it and
retrench the manpower … My belief is that if we have honesty, vision
and commitment to the organisation, there is no possibility of any
institution and corporation running into losses.”
It’s a strategy based on volume. While output has
increased threefold, real operating costs have fallen over the last 25
years. By increasing the capacity of a typical long-distance train to
2000 passengers from 800, unit costs fell by 45 per cent. The practice
of taking seven days to load or unload a freight train was reduced to
five, and systematic changes have helped to rein in corruption. Garib rath trains, also known as the ‘poor man’s chariot’, now have air-conditioning with cushioned seats and suction toilets.
Bringing down freight fares has greatly benefited
local industry, Prasad says. In a country where agriculture is the
backbone of the economy, he says there is a huge role for Indian
Railways in helping farmers directly connect with markets for their
goods.
“There are no markets in the places where production
happens and middle men buy the agricultural produce at cheap prices. We
are going to open agricultural centres at stations so farmers don’t
have to search for markets. Through joint ventures, we will set up cold
storage and purchase points in stations, as well as freezer containers,
so they can send agricultural produce around the country and beyond. We
will charge farmers appropriate and reasonable prices. This will enrich
farmers, and this increase in income will mean they can buy the things
that everyone else is buying.”
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Audience at Indian Railways presentation |
With regard to private investment, Prasad says the
turnaround has piqued interest in investing in the railways. While the
private sector can play a role – in building engines and wheels, and
world-class stations, for example – Prasad insists there is absolutely
no chance of allowing privatisation of the core business, “rail,
running of trains, [and] control of all the trains.” Indian Railways’
surplus earnings mean that the organisation does not have to depend on
overseas development assistance from bodies such as the Japan
International Cooperation Agency to expand. “JICA or no JICA - we are
self-sufficient.”
In an exclusive interview with INSEAD Knowledge,
Prasad said freight trains are Indian Railways’ “earning horse,” and he
has extensive plans for expanding freight lines, increasing their
efficiency, and capturing the 60 per cent of goods that are still
transported by road. A third line – a dedicated freight corridor – is
also being constructed to connect even the most remote areas with all
ports and industrial hubs.
Prasad is also keen to help in India’s water
conservation efforts, by building siphons and canals, and – on the
wasteland on either side of the 64,000 kilometres of track – pipes with
water for drinking and irrigation. He also outlined efforts to reduce
fuel consumption by building train carriages from aluminium to reduce
their weight. “With the increasing price of fuel, we have to keep an
alternative in mind. Therefore, we are going to electrify the main
routes in the entire country. The (proposed civil) nuclear deal (with
the US which would allow India to develop nuclear technology to meet
its growing energy demands) – which should be reached – is also likely
to help.”
With an eye to the future, Prasad says that as
India’s population continues to grow, there will be a need for more
trains, more engines and wheels. “Even now, we buy wheels from abroad.
We have only two factories, and are building a third. It’s fine that
these things come from abroad but we have the skills, unemployment, and
youth.” Prasad also recommends learning from another country with a
“magnanimous population” – China. “China has gotten really far ahead.
We will have to learn from them
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Sudhir Kumar |
… Instead of jealousy, we should see what our neighbour is doing and copy that.”
Indian Railways’ turnaround had required a
fundamental shift in mindset. As Prasad’s adviser, Sudhir Kumar, notes:
“We are not in the business of railways; we are in the business of
transportation – one of several modes of transportation, and the only
way to survive and thrive in the marketplace is to offer superior and
compelling value to your customers.” |
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Friday, September 10, 2004 |
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Ministry of Railways |
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 Lalu Prasad rules out privatisation of Indian Railways
ADDRESSES CONFERENCE OF GENERAL MANAGERS
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15:12 IST |
The Union Minister of
Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad has ruled out privatization of Indian
Railways. Addressing a two-day Conference of General Managers of Zonal
Railways, Production Units and Kolkata Metro here today, Shri Prasad
said he would rather quit than allow privatization. In this connection,
he mentioned that private sector would not meet the aspirations of
people at large if Railways were privatized, as the cost of operation
and services would increase manifold.
The Railway Minister
listed the priorities of the Government in the form of safety,
security, punctuality and cleanliness of trains and locomotives and
directed the General Managers to improve these areas lest punitive
action should be taken against them. He asked General Managers that
cleanliness in trains and locomotives be improved within a month. All
the rollingstock should look pleasant to eyesight. Locomotives should
also be made crew-friendly. He also asked General Managers to improve
construction quality of Indian Railways. He said that General Managers
should strive hard to ensure that public trust in the Railways must not
be sapped and security, safety, punctuality and cleanliness of rail
services were maintained to the satisfaction of the users.
Talking
of the UPA Government’s resolve to make Indian Railways number one
Railway in the world, the Minister said that in keeping with the Common
Minimum Programme of the Government, the budgetary support to Railways
has been increased by additional Rs.1137 crores over and above the
already announced in the Railway Budget, 2004-2005 in the full Planning
Commission meeting chaired by the Prime Minister yesterday. General
Managers were directed to inspect all rail services personally
including catering to ensure all-round improvement. He also asked the
General Managers to sustain vigilance to plug leakages of revenues in
the form of overweight of freight and parcel consignments and their
under-charging, ticketless travelling, fraudulent salary and pension
payments and inventory control to increase all round earnings of
railways. He also asked them to achieve the passenger and freight
targets for the current year. He was happy to note that the freight
target during the first five months of the current financial year
ending August, 2004 was in excess of the target. He also asked them to
keep a watchful eye on inventory control to prevent leakages of
revenues. Besides, he directed them to ensure that scrapped material
were collected at one point in each Zonal Railway and recycled for
production of wheels and other components in order to tackle high cost
of steel.
The Minister of State for Railways, Shri R. Velu,
who also spoke on the occasion, asked the General Managers to ensure
that at least two freight and parcel trains were checked by them
personally in a month to plug leakages of revenues.
The
Minister of State for Railways, Shri Naranbhai J. Rathwa asked General
Managers to give personal attention to the priority areas listed by the
Government to ensure all-round improvement in rail services to the
nation. Earlier, Chairman, Railway Board, Shri R.K. Singh, in his
overview expressed the concern of the Government over massive leakages
of revenues in the Railways and asked the General Managers to ensure
that such mal-practices were minimized to the negligible levels.
The
Railway Minister also released a Book Titled ‘THE KOLKATA METRO- Dum
Dum-Tollygunge - Design & Construction’. The book deals with the
difficulties encountered by Indian Railways engineers in the
construction of 16.46 kilometre long Kolkata Metro and how it was an
engineering marvel of India and for that pride of the country.
The
Railway Minister also gave away shields to various Zonal Railways for
their outstanding performance in 2003-2004. These Shields were to be
presented to General Managers of Zonal Railways on June 16, 2004 at
Kolkata, but the programme was cancelled following a train accident on
Konkan Railway. Comprehensive Healthcare Shield was given to Southern
Railway, Civil Engineering Shield to Central Railway, Mechanical
Engineering Shield to South Central Railway, Electrical Engineering
Shield to Northern Railway, Signal & Telecommunication Engineering
Shield to West Central Railway, Personnel Management Shield to Western
Railway, Stores Shield to Eastern Railway, Security Shield to Eastern
Railway, Traffic Transportation Shield to South Western and East
Central Railways (Jointly), Accounts and Finance Management Shield to
Western Railway, Safety Shield to North Central Railway, Commercial
Shield to Northern Railway and Civil Engineering (Construction) Shield
to Southern and Northeast Frontier Railway (Construction) (jointly).
The
Conference of General Managers has been convened to review railway plan
performance for the current financial year and to work out measures for
plugging leakages in revenues, as also generating indirect employment
to thousands of people. |
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Special Report - Indian Railways
From The Economist: December 6th 2003
There’s no such thing as free ride
Delhi
India’s call centres, software firms and
drugmakers are booming. But much of the rest of the country’s economy
remains mired in bureaucratic and ideological constraints. To gauge
the difficulties of putting India’s economic reforms on track, consider
its railways, once the vanguard of modernization.
Unusually, India’s Parliament hears two
annual budget speeches. One, delivered by the minister of finance, goes
over the normal boring stuff: health; defence; education; taxes;
tariffs and so on. The other, delivered a couple of days earlier,
covers the railways. The survival of this bizarre system, introduced by
the British colonial government in 1924, tells you two things about
India’s railways: first, at a time when many railway systems around the
world are being privatised, or at least run as independent
corporations, India’s remain an arm of government; second the system is
both huge – by one estimate the world’s largest commercial enterprise
in terms of its employees-and enjoys a unique national importance.
It
also, however, shares many of the troubles that have afflicted other
state-run railway networks in recent years. Most importantly, it does
not make enough money to meet its investment needs. Its “operating
ratio” – operating costs as a proportion of revenues – which had
climbed close to 100% by the beginning of this century, has fallen to
92.5%. But that is still not enough to cover depreciation, maintenance
and expansion. Nor can the railways rely on
indefinite government bail-outs at a time when India’s overall fiscal
deficit (at more than 10% of GDP) risks becoming unsustainable. Yet the
railway system has been losing customers to an improving road network,
making it hard to see how its finances will ever improve.
On top of this, the railway system is under attack for its safety record. Its own statistics belie the impression given by the frequent reports in Indian newspapers of an especially accident-prone system. Measured
per millions of train-kilometres travelled, India has fewer rail
accidents than Japan (055 as opposed to 0.65). But, according to its
own white paper on safety produced this year, it suffers a far higher
death rate than Japan (0.8 per billion passenger-kilometres, compared
with 0.1).
The
railways’ critics accuse it of making no distinction between unviable
and commercial projects. On one estimate, 50% of its lines are
under-used and 30% are over-used – primarily the main “high-density”
inter-city corridors. These days, the most lavish “strategic” projects,
such as a rail link to the Indian-controlled Kashmir valley that, it is
hoped, might dampen separatist sentiment there, are paid for out of
another government budget. But the railways are burdened, says a former
senior railways executive, by a system which demands that the minister
spread his funds thinly in response to the
pressure from members of Parliament and state assemblies. As a result,
many projects get a “token allocation”, but few are ever completed.
Not
all the criticism directed at the railway is fair. But, because they
were an essential part of the attempt in the 1950s and 1960s to impose
a planned socialist economy on India, their reform has also come to be
seen as an essential part of that economy’s dismantling. Since a wave
of liberal, market-oriented measures in the early 1990s debate about
how to reform the railways has intensified.
A glorious past
Earlier this year, India celebrated the 150th anniversary of its first train journey. On April 16th
1853, a locomotive pulling 14 carriages and 400 people left what was
then Bombay to a 21-gun salute and trundled to Thane, 34 km (21 miles)
away. The journey took about 75 minutes.
From
there, the network grew fast. Some of it was built by the British Raj,
some by the princely states, such as Bikaner and Jodhpur, which
retained their notional independence. Many of the network’s main trunk
routes were laid by private companies under schemes that would now be
described as “build-operate-transfer”. Passenger numbers increased from
24m in 1901 to 42m in 1917. By 1922, almost 60,000 km of track had been
laid. In a controversy
that would find echoes in contemporary India, the rail operators, which
enjoyed a government-guaranteed minimum return, were suspected of
exorbitant profit-gouging. IN 1924, the entire system – its
construction, operation and financing – was brought under the control
of the British Indian government.
The
shape of the network had been dictated mainly by the commercial,
industrial and administrative requirements of the British empire, as
well as by the vanity and convenience of individual maharajahs. But
it came to be credited with an important role in integrating not just
the Indian economy, but also in helping to create the “nation” itself.
Not everybody welcomed it. In
1909, Mahatma Gandhi, hero of India’s independence struggle, blamed the
railways (along with lawyers and doctors) for impoverishing the
country. Railways, he argued, spread famine because they helped farmers to sell their grain to the dearest market. They “accentuate the evil nature of man. Bad men fulfil their designs with greater rapidity”.
Independent
India, however, took to the railways with gusto. It lavished money on
modernising a system that, at the time of independence in 1947, had
only steam locomotives. Today, Indian Railways is the largest
organisation in the country, both in number of employees – more than
1.5m- and in capital invested, some $10 billion. It
has 63,000 km of routes, 7,700 locomotives and nearly 7,000 stations.
It carries 1.4 m tonnes of freight and 14m passengers every day - equivalent to moving all of India more than four times a year.
It
is also a tottering tower of vertical integration: its units are
engaged in designing, making and maintaining rolling stock; in building
work; in running schools, hospitals, housing and hotels; and in
catering, both for passengers and staff. Besides those it employs
directly, Indian Railways issues licences to 36,000 uniformed porters
and 11,000 authorised hawkers. Tens of thousands more-shoeshine boys,
touts, scavengers, beggars and auto-rickshaw drivers – congregate
around stations to make their unlicensed livings.
Sorting out the subsidies
Indian Railways is “one of the most studied
institutions on the planet” according to a report published in 2001 by
a government-appointed group chaired by Rakesh Mohan, an economist who
is now deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, the Central Bank.
The Mohan report is a damning indictment of the way that Indian
Railways is run, and a prolonged argument for “radical structural
change”.
Many
of its conclusions have since been endorsed by further reports from the
World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. None goes the whole
neo-liberal hog and promotes wholesale privatisation. All, however,
agree that the railways should be run on commercial lines and that, if
the government wants to subsidise services, then the subsidies should
be transparent.
This simple conclusion has a number of far-reaching implications. It
means that Indian Railways should start divesting itself of “non-core”
activities, such as catering and manufacturing; that its top
management, a seven-member Railway Board, should shed its conflicting
responsibilities as regulator, policymaker and boss; and that it should
start producing intelligible accounts. Similarly, it should establish
standard commercial criteria for its investments. But above all, it should stop using its freight customers to subsidise passenger fares.
Many changes designed to meet these challenges are chugging along sedately. But
because of its history, its scale and its usefulness to so many
political interests, Indian Railways presents a special challenge to
reformers. The roots of that challenge lie in an
addiction to vote-catching subsidies, a fear of the power of organised
labour, a deep suspicion of privatisation, and a reluctance to lose the
power to dispense political patronage.
“Trains cannot be run for charity”, wrote Gandhi in 1947. The
Mahatma, by then clearly a convert to rail travel, was incensed that so
many of his countrymen were fare-dodgers. Ever since, many Indians have
taken cheap rail travel for granted. And there are railway officials who support them. One
of them says “we perceive ourselves as being not a transport
organisation, but part and parcel of the running of this country.”
The
railway, he says, has to transport not just urban commuters and
tourists, but also landless labourers in search of distant work and
ascetic pilgrims on their way to the holy city of Haridwar. At
election time, it has to shift voting machines, politicians, officials,
paramilitary guards and voters. The job extends to “the preservation of
democracy itself”.
All well and good, say the railway’s critics. But
why does the freight customer have to foot the bill? Passenger trains
account for nearly two-thirds of railway services, but produce just
one-third of revenues. According to the railways’ own figures, moving
one passenger one kilometre made a loss of 15 paise ($0.003) last year. Shifting
a tonne of freight made a profit of 16 paise. As a result, the ratio of
passenger fares per person-kilometre to freight rates per
tonne-kilometre is among the lowest in the world: about 0.3, compared
with 2.2 in Japan. China may be a more instructive comparison. Between 1994 and 1998, it raised passenger fares by 75%, lifting the passenger fare to freight-tariff ratio from 0.9 to 1.2
What logic demands
Y.P. Anand, a former chairman of India’s
Railway Board, argues that a move in that direction is logical in
India, where passengers, by and large, are becoming more expensive, as
they demand more space and comfort, while freight by contrast costs
less, as improved technology leads to better and faster use of space.
One consequence of Indian Railways’ present bias, according to a rough
calculation by the World Bank, is that freight tariffs could be reduced
by more than 40% if its social burdens were paid directly by the user
or the government. Manashi Roy of the Confederation of Indian
Industry, a private-sector lobby in Delhi, says that for some users it
has become cheaper to import coal and steel than to move it internally.
Yet
in his budget in February this year, as last year, Nitish Kumar, the
minister of railways, announced that there would be no increase in
passenger fares. He also refrained from an across-the-board increase in
freight rates. In practice, however, Indian
Railways has been tinkering with the distortion in the tariff structure
by simplifying categories and classes. It has managed a stealthy 14%
rise in passenger fares over the past three years, against a mere 2%
rise in freight charges.
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