March 24, 2022
Derek O’Brien’s speech during the discussion on the working of the Ministry of Railways
Sir, our second Railway Minister, Shri N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar from Tamil Nadu had a big idea, a great idea, which has been sustained now for 60-70 years. He came up with the idea of Railway Zones. It was not there before. After that, another big idea, which has sustained over five, six decades was the idea of Madhu Dandavate ji. His idea was that instead of the sleepers just being of wood, we should put cushions there to make a difference to the common people who travel by trains. It was a great idea which has sustained the test of time. Nitish Kumar ji came up with Tatkal scheme. Lalu Prasad Yadav ji came up with the Garib Rath scheme. It was his big idea. Mamata Banerjee came up with Vision-2020 Document, and, I will come to it later. Duronto Express was there. The Izzat Pass was there for those below the poverty line. I want to ask this Government as to what is their one big idea from 2014 to 2021, which will sustain the test of time ten or twenty years from now. Oh!, why one, they will tell me that they have got five, six, seven ideas. Let us take them one by one. First is, Vande Bharat Express. In the Vande Bharat Express, the cost of a ticket is between Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 3,000. It is somewhere in this range. This is your big idea and you are entitled to it, keep it because your outlook is different from the outlook of Trinamool Congress and many other parties have as far as railways is concerned. For us, the Railways constitute the infrastructure for the fundamental right of every Indian citizen to move from point A to point B. It is the fundamental right as far as transport is concerned. You may look at it differently. We don’t. So, this is for your Vande Bharat. Let us come to your second so-called big idea. In 2017, you subsumed the Railway Budget into the General Budget. We objected to it at that time, and, we object to it today also. Former Railway Minister who is now the Chief Minister of West Bengal said, “This will damage the very core of the transport system”. What is the benefit of this ‘subsuming’ that has taken place? Please tell us. About LIC, you said that 1.5 lakh crore. These are my direct questions, and, please address these questions in your reply. Why was only 30,000 crore of rupees given? What happened after the first tranche? Why is there no further funding? Tell us about the methodology of funding, tell us about the LIC interest rates, tell us about the repayment issues. Please address these issues in your reply and we will be happy to hear the same. Let me now come to your third big idea, and, as I said, your big idea will never be in tune with our idea because your outlook towards the Railways is different from our outlook towards Railways, which is fundamental right of movement. Your third idea is, Train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, call it super-fast or call it bullet train. There is nothing wrong
with the bullet train maybe at some later stage. To make a bullet train costs Rs. 200 crores per kilometre. Our priority would have been a dedicated freight corridor for sabji, for chawal, for gram and for everything else at a cost of Rs. 25 crore per kilometre. I understand, and, I say this on the floor of the House that this bullet train is your vanity project. But since we are talking about big ideas, let us talk about some of those ideas which were promised to be done by 2022 and we are all so eagerly looking forward to it. Some of them are – farmers’ income will double – by 2022; bullet train will come – by 2022; five trillion dollar economy – by 2022; water and toilet in every home – by 2022; electricity for all – by 2022. For those of you who want to bring these high-speed trains, there is
nothing against the high-speed trains, I would say, please think of a small railway station called Kitham. It is a small town in Uttar Pradesh. Every day 96 trains whiz pass Kitham on the New Delhi-Agra route. Rakesh, if he
wants to take a train, he would have to take the Agra-Delhi passenger train, which does not run on Sundays and the average speed of those trains is 30 kilometre/hour. Your priority; our priority. Your priority – our priority. Now, let us come to your next big idea. I want to ask you, since we think it is a fundamental right of travel, who told you to shut the railway network down four hours before covid lockdown. The Railways is a precious resource of our country. You misused that precious resource. 120 lakh passengers travel daily long distance in the railways. Just look at this number – 120 lakh. With covid restrictions, you could cut the number down to 60 lakh per day. Instead of shutting it down in 4 hours, you could keep it open for 5 days. You would not have had the migrant crisis. And those videos from Muzzafarpur railway station, I don’t want to remind you of that, of the little child with the dead mother covered because day before yesterday was the second anniversary of banging thalis. So, these are your ‘big ideas’. Now about ‘Private trains’, you say this is my ‘big idea’. Let’s ask you some questions on the private trains. Tejas trains halted 8 months later. In 2021, we were told that dozens of companies filed tenders. Whenever the RTI activists — RTI activism is part of our democracy — write to Railway Board, no data is available there. What is the communication for these private trains? Sir, there was an Empowered Group of Secretaries which was set up by the Railway Ministry. How many meetings have they had? Share with the MPs what was discussed at those meetings. Your next big idea, you say, is federalism. I can give you 12-13 projects in Bengal — everyone will have such projects in their own States — where the allocation for them is Rs. 1,000 crores for the year. Whenever there is a problem with the railway work, they say ‘State Government, land acquisition’. There are so many other examples to give you but I thought the real good one is beyond Bengal. It is for the Southern Railways, and this is from the Pink Book, which used to come out on the day of the Railway Budget. I know this subject a little. It takes you weeks to calculate. So,
after some calculations, Southern Railways got less than Rs. 400 crores in the last four years. And the Northern Railways, if we add it up, comes to about Rs. 30,000 crores. …(Interruptions)… I am not getting into the numbers, but conceptually, we talk so much about federalism. Where is the federalism? I can go State by State. Sir, I urge this Ministry, since you have a full railway department. Of course, the joke here was this. Some people were saying that we first discussed the North-East Ministry. Then we discussed the Scheduled Tribes Ministry. Third, I was asked, “Which Ministry are you speaking on”? I said now we are discussing the PMO. Sir, I urge this Ministry — they have got the numbers — to share the figures as to what allocation in a State was and what percentage that State has been
given. …(Interruptions)… Maybe you had some big ideas about the NorthEast which we missed! The Imphal railway station is still under construction. Sir, we need another big idea for the North-East, which can’t afford expensive freights. Do consider a way to make the freight rates affordable in the North-East. What steps has the Government taken to tap the Trans Asian Network? There are many of the South Asian countries which are closer. Look at these as big ideas. Well, as I said, your view on the Railways and our view on the Railways is different. I have a copy of the
Vision Document. You are following some of this. We are happy. I am reading from the Vision Document when Ms. Mamata Banerjee was the Railway Minister. Raising the speed of the passenger trains from 130 to 160 kilometers – good, on track. Don’t forget the suburban trains, Railways should set up 50 world class stations, all from the Vision Document 2010 – good. You have a lot of experience, Railway Minister, first as a bureaucrat and then with Adler Infrastructure. So these are all good experiences for you. You said in the Lok Sabha, ‘Who does the railway tracks belong to?’ You said, ‘Railways’. Who does the stations belong to? Railways. Who owns the train coaches? Railways. Who owns the signalling system? Railways. Then why is there any talk of privatization? I ask you this, Sir.
Who owns the airports? Mostly Government of India. Who owns the runways? Mostly Government of India. Who owns the air infrastructure? Mostly Government of India. Who sold Air India? We think, Sir, this Government must focus differently. We will listen here to their seven ideas which are their great ideas. You compare those seven ideas to what were previously done by the Railway Ministry and then you look at what touches the lives of the people? Who is our audience? Who is our consumer? If you think your consumer or your co-consumer is the passenger, who gets on a train in Ahmedabad and has to reach Mumbai, no. Very good. Do that. But don’t forget who the Railways is for. I will conclude by saying, please do remember you are doing nobody a favour. We have two-three minutes’ time and we have one more speaker. He will take two minutes after this. So I finish before time. Thank you, Sir.
