Month: March 2025

Thank you, Mr. Vice-Chairman, Sir, for having given me the opportunity. I thank my party for letting me speak on the Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024. This Bill gives us all, in the Opposition, a very mixed feeling because Railway is an extremely important Ministry, a Ministry, a Department that was debated over hours and days in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. GH>U Y? [U_= हOE=W But, for some strange reason, we have been deprived of that opportunity. Be that as it may, this Bill raises a very important question. It is repealing the 1898 and 1905 Act and incorporates the provisions of the 1905 Act into the 1989 Railway Act. Sir, I would like to ask the hon. Minister, through you, that the 1989 Act, which is a 200-section Act and covers almost every subject and every issue in the Railway Ministry, whether it was not the apt time for the Railway Minister to review the entire Act of 1989, make amendments to it and send that Bill to an appropriate committee for scrutiny. Then, why is it that the Government shys away from a standing committee or a select committee? There could only be one reason, Sir, that these committees will, actually, compel the Minister for a reality check, a reality that he is not comfortable with. Sir, each Member in the Opposition has said, we are proud of the Railway Department, which unites this country. We have seen Mahatma Gandhi travel across the country on the railway system. But, today, what is happening, Sir? When we see the word ‘railway’ in any newspaper or on any TV channel, it is next to words like death, delay, congestion, stampede, extortion and accidents. As an Indian citizen and a Parliamentarian, when the word ‘Railway’ becomes synonymous to these ‘disastrous words’, I think this was the moment to actually scrutinize the Railway Ministry. Sir, what is the political message that this Bill is giving and the NDA Government is giving? It is that they do not care about accountability for negligence and inefficiency; that they do not give the people of India priority; and last but not the least, that this is a Government which is not open to reforming the Railway Ministry. This is the message that goes to the entire nation on the presentation of the short Bill but which gives a very loud message. Sir, accountability is a very important thing. We are all aware of ‘sovereign immunity.’ I don’t mind if I see the hon. Minister getting into the engine driver’s seat and waving at empty footpaths. I have no problem. That is part of politics. But the question is, when there is a crash, when we see people dying and people getting injured, that is the time we think what the accountability of the hon. Minister is. Today, the 1989 Act allows you to prosecute officers but not the Minister because of sovereign immunity. In these circumstances, in a democracy, the Prime Minister of India should have asked for the resignation of the hon. Railway Minister. Let me justify that with figures — 678 railway accidents between 2014 and 2023; 781 lives lost, 1500 injuries, including employees. Today, does this not call for accountability in a democratic country like ours? I ask this question from all the Members of Parliament who are present here today. Secondly, Sir, I am appalled. I don’t even know what to say when I look at the figure that as of 2024, 1.52 lakhs sanctioned posts in the safety category are today vacant. Does this Government take safety and security seriously? That is the answer that the hon. Minister must tell us. My colleagues have spoken about Kavach. Today only 2 per cent of the total route lengths are covered by Kavach which is actually a big protection shield to the common people. Today to cover all routes with Kavach, the cost is Rs. 63,000 crores. But this Government has not spent that money but for the vanity ‘Vande Bharat Scheme Railway’, it is around Rs. 1.60 crores. What is their priority – vanity or the safety of the people — this Government needs to answer! Sir, ‘inspection of track safety’ is only at 50 per cent. What does the Government have to say about that? Are people priorities, Sir? I hear several Ministers criticizing hon. Chief Minister of Bengal, but I am proud to say that when she brought Duronto Express, she made it faster than Rajdhani but without a price rise. When she brought Izzat Scheme, she gave the socially-underprivileged an opportunity to travel at cheap costs, almost like a right to the poor. I would like to say that arbitrary control by the Government of this Department will not help the Railway Ministry, and let me give an example. The grand privatisation plan that this Government had launched and issued tenders in July, 2020 for privatisation of freight trains, etc., we have seen that in almost nine clusters, there were absolutely no takers and no bidders. So there is policy confusion. Given that you are a monopoly, what is it that you want? If you decontrol Railway, that is how privatisation will happen. If you plan to control it, then, please give the regional zones more autonomy, more financial autonomy, so that they compete with each other to become a competitive department. But none of this has happened. Sir, last but not the least, I come from North East, the State of Assam, and our connectivity is a big issue. So, we can keep thumping our chests saying, ‘Act East Policy; Act East Policy’, but unless the North-Eastern States find their way to the ports of Bengal, to the roads of Bengal, to the railway of Bengal via Bangladesh, the ‘Act East Policy’ can never be a reality for us. The trans-Asian Railway is absolute priority for us. I request the hon. Railway Minister to look into this matter because I am aware that it is also the External Affairs Minister who has to be involved in this. Sir, I would like to tell the hon. Minister that you hold an important Ministry. Ideally, what you should do at this stage is, send this Bill to a select committee and hear the voices of the people on what they feel and how unsafe they feel in your trains, through the Select Committee. If you do that, then, I would say that this Government is being true to its job. Short of that, it is nothing but photo-ops and optics. With these words, I end my speech. Thank you.

Mr. Deputy Chairman, Sir, as per the Asian Development Bank’s 2018 Report, West Bengal had the largest arsenic-affected population and areas in the country. Now, after the establishment of the National Institute for Water and Sanitation in Kolkata, what effective measures has the Government of India taken to combat the most affected areas, particularly given the unscientific sharing of Ganga water with a neighbouring country, which severely affects the districts of Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas? This is my pointed question to the Honourable Minister.

Sir, my first supplementary is this. There are numerous cases of litigation on claims of disability pensions by veterans and jawans. The Ministry of Defence has appealed against many cases where veterans have asked for disability pensions. The Supreme Court has repeatedly recorded its displeasure against the Ministry of Defence for litigation on disability pensions. Will the hon. Minister kindly answer why the Ministry of Defence routinely challenges virtually all Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) judgments in favour of veterans when it comes to granting disability pensions. Sir, I thank the hon. Minister but that was not really an answer to my question. It seemed he was busy making a political speech. Maybe, he should prepare better for questions relating to the Defence Ministry. My question was about why the Defence Ministry keeps challenging petitions of disability. My second supplementary question is this. The Government has shifted pension dispersal to the SPARSH portal. However, this portal suffers from repeated glitches and elderly veterans are placed in a great deal of inconvenience. Is the Ministry planning to make the SPARSH portal more user-friendly for pensioners and by when can we expect these improvements?