August 2, 2016
Dinesh Trivedi speaks in Lok Sabha on government resolution on Railways
Mr. Deputy-Speaker, Sir, first of all I would like to thank you and my Party for giving me this opportunity to speak on one of my favourite topics, the Railways. I am fortunate that the hon. Finance Minister is also present in the House because basically – I would not say a tussle – this is a subject matter between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Railways.
In a while I will go into the history of Railway Convention Committee itself. But before I do that let me tell you that I do not leave any forum or occasion to praise the Indian Railways. The Indian Railways is an amazing family. I can tell you without any kind of contradiction that it is perhaps one of the best organizations in the world.
Modernisation process of Indian Railways started when ShriMadhavraoScindiaji, a dear good friend, who is no more,was the Railway Minister. He initiated a lot of modernisation process. The next was Vision 2020 of the then Minister for Railways, hon. Mamata Banerjee ji, who is the Chief Minister of West Bengal now. I am not trying to praise because she does not require it. The world is praising her. If you read this Vision 2020 document, I think, it covers everything. In this very Report of the Railway Convention Committee a lot of reference has been made to this Vision 2020. Very honestly, when I took over as the Minister for Railway, I said that this is going to be my bible; this is going to be the basis on which I am going to take forward whatever they have started. All of them have done very good work.
As I said, the best organization in the world, the most capable people we can think of, are in the Railways. In order for an engineer to get experience, his first preference would be the Railways. But what is happening today, and the crux the Railways is the finances. Sir, I have a very basic point. The very basic point is, what are we going to do about the Railways? Sir, as I was telling you, the Vision 2020 was presented by the then Minister for Railways, hon. Mamata Banerjee.
The reason I am repeating this is because a lot of hon. Members of Parliament might not have heard that. The Vision 2020 came at a very critical time. What was the critical time? The burden of the Sixth Pay Commission suddenly was put on the Railways. If it had not been for the leadership and collective wisdom of the people of the Railways and Mamata Banerjee, who created thisVision 2020, it would have been impossible. After a lot of patience and persuasion, a lot of expenditures were cut but not at the cost of development without even increasing anything which would hurt the common man. So, it was a difficult period.
What do we want out of IndianRailways? Sir, the Indian Railways is capable of certainly adding, perhaps, more than two and a half per cent to the GDP. I think, we do not have to use lot of our brains when we go to any country, we can make out a country’s economic development by seeing its transportation system.We can make out whether it is a developed country, developing country or under-developed country only by seeing what kind of transportation systems they have. I am afraid, there is a lot to be done.
If the Railways get derailed, then I am afraid, number-wise, years-wise, the country will go on and perhaps the Party will go on, but as far as the progress is concerned, I am not very sure.
Just imagine India, which I had also mentioned in my speech as a Minister, can you imagine India without Himalayas? I am sure, we cannot. There is no India without Himalayas. Can we imagine India without the holy river Ganga? Obviously not. The entire sustenance of India is because of the Himalayas and the Ganga. I want to add to that the Indian Railways. Can you imagine India without the Indian Railways? It is just not possible. It is not possible at all. That is why, when you have the priorities of the Himalayas, cleaning up Ganga, I think one of the priorities has to be the Indian Railways.
The thing which I am getting at is the very history of this Convention Committee report. Why should we have this Convention Committee, to begin with? The Chairman of the Convention Committee is a very capable person, hon. Mahtabji. It is not a reflection on that. The history of the Convention Committee goes to the British Colonial era. When the Railways were started, they wanted to take money out of the Railways. Railways were never seen as something which is going to integrate the country. Sir, do you know that this Committee itself is an ad hoc Committee?
I am not reflecting anything as far as the competence is concerned but this is the system. I will tell you where the problem is. The problem is this. How is the Indian Railways defined? It is a basic thing which a lot of hon. Members perhaps may not know. A lot of hon. Members came up to me and said, what is this Convention Committee? The fact is, we are not even aware, but that is one of the most important Committees. That is a Committee which decides on the dividend rate.
I will tell you as to where the basic problem is. The basic problem is in the definition of the Railway. What is the definition? The Indian Railway is a departmental, mind you, commercial undertaking of the Government of India. It was all right as long as it was under the British regime. Whatever penny the Britishers invested, they wanted return out of it. Sir, can you have return out of the Defence Ministry? Can you have return out of the Roadways? Can we say that we are putting in so much of money in education? We should get some interest out of education. No, these are the organisations, set-ups and Ministries which are building India. But this country is free today, and we are very happy that a lot of our martyrs, a lot of our citizens got martyrdom and we got freedom.
But unfortunately, Railway is still not free from this colonial legacy. I really had to cry to get Rs24,000 crore from the then Finance Minister. Now, he is the hon. President of India, DrPranab Mukherjee. I said why I cannot make a Budget if you do not give me that. On the one side, you do not give the freedom to the Railways, and it is rightly so because we have so many poor people. You cannot keep on increasing the fare and the freight. On the other side, all of us, the entire country wants Railway Minister to be a magician. Everybody wants under-bridge, over-passand projects. And, incidentally, there are so many railway projects in West Bengal and we have been talking about it. Kindly see to it that they get passed.
The Railway finances have been separated from the general finances as per the Separation Convention of 1924 and till then, the Railways was actually making a lot of money. I can tell you, I have got the figures that between the year 1898 and 1924, the Railways made a profit of Rs 103 crore. That is where the Britishers thought that this is a kamdhenugaai and we must get interest out of it.
What do we want to do with the Railways? I also want to suggest like we have a National Policy on Defence, we have a National Policy on Foreign Affairs, why can we not have a National Policy on Indian Railways? Why can we not all collectively make sure that the money is given to the Railways? That money is not basically for anything else but that money basically goes in making sure that this country gets the transportation system because without that basic infrastructure, nothing can grow. I will just take another three minutes and I will be done. Please have patience. I am surprised with this one Resolution which I am reading from the report.
“The contribution to the Depreciation Revenue Fund (DRF) may be allowed to be made in consonance with the capacity of the system to general internal resource.”
Sir, do you know what it means? It means that if the Railways cannot have the generation of internal revenue, because salaries areincreasing, pensions are increasing, then you cannot have a Railway Fund which goes into depreciations. Which means what? If one of your Railway bridges or one of the line requires repair, you do not have money for that. Can we put the system into jeopardy? More than 10 to 15 people everydaydie in the Mumbai Railways. Do you mean to say it is because of paucity of funds? So, my suggestion is that we must get out of that and we must ensure that, like all the other Ministries, because today the Indian Railways belongs to India like the Himalayas and the Ganga. We cannot afford to have this treatment of commercial thing, and I dare say that the Indian Railways cannot be treated as a commercial entity. Nowhere in the world, Sir, the Railways has the capacity to earn money and plough it back.
China was about 15 years behind the Indian Railways, maybe, 20-25 years back. Today, they have gone so far that we cannot even make up. Japan took money from the World Bank at a very, very low interest rate. So, please understand that no Railways in the world can run in profit. The entire infrastructure has to be given by the Government. As far as the running of the Railways is concerned, that is a different story. The running of the Railways has to be that you do not make money; you do not make losses; but that has to be efficient.
Sir, I understand that it is not that we are talking on the Budget of the Railways but this Convention Committee has to be deliberated. I strongly recommend that you must go through the history and the time has come where we must have a National Policy on Railway because railway is a big asset.
I will just read a poetry and conclude:
Railgari ke chuk chuk me hi aam admi ke dhakdhak hai
Railgari ke barkat me hi desh ki barkat hai
Railgari ko kucch dular ki zaroorat hai,
Thori Rahat, thori chahat, thori pyar ki zaroorat hai
Railgari ke chuk chuk me hi desh basiyon ki dhakdhak hai.
Thank you very much, Sir.
