March 12, 2025
Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Thakur’s speech during the Discussion on the Working of the Ministry of Railways
“Respected Sir, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on behalf of All India Trinamool Congress. The hon. Railway Minister had spoken in the House two or three days ago. He was being arrogant. How will he solve the problem? In order to solve a problem, you must first acknowledge that there is a problem. If he has already assumed everything was wrong before 2014 and he came and fixed everything, then, I would like to request through you that hon. Railway Minister should show some humbleness. My party has repeatedly requested discussion on important issues such as frequent accidents, safety lapses and rampant mismanagement In the railways under Rule 267. Yet all these requests were ignored. Despite repeated demands by the opposition, no steps have been taken to restore the pre-Covid subsidy. Subsidy on rail tickets has come down by six percent in the past few years. The Central Government has also stopped exemptions for senior citizens and recognized journalists. Sir, then how will the Central Government look at the subsidy when the railways are collapsing due to their management or rather mismanagement? According to the CAG report, in 2019-20, passenger and other coach services incurred a loss of Rs. 63,364 crore. The entire profit of the freight-carrying operation is utilized. Losses in passenger transport have been increasing year after year. Indian Railways faced a loss of Rs 2604.40 crore due to unpaid loans, GST and making inappropriate decisions such as non-fair revenue generation, concessions on ineligible grants and wasteful expenditure. Nowadays citizens fear traveling by train. Only in 2023-24, 313 passengers and 4 railway workers lost their lives in 40 tragic accidents. In the last decade train accidents have become commonplace. Only in the last month, 18 people died due to lack of adequate management at New Delhi station. However, the Railway Amendment Bill 2024 which was passed last week, failed to pay compensation on time, that is to be paid within two months of the accident. Sir, according to the CAG report, 20 percent of these accidents are due to railway lines exceeding their lifetime. More than 40 percent of the rail coaches have been in use for the past 20 years or more. A measly 9 percent of the total capital expenditure by the railways is allocated to track renewal, and a paltry 1.4 percent is spent on signaling systems. Altogether, a total expenditure of Rs 63,000 crore has been spent on the installation of Kavach on each route. Currently, it will take at least 50 years to install it on all the routes. On the other hand, 1.6 lakh crore has been allocated to the Vande Bharat project. 9 out of 10 suburban commuters travel in either second class or sleeper class. Only 1 in 10 urban passengers travel in upper class including air-conditioned coaches. However, in the last decade, the affordability to travel in airconditioned class has increased by 190 percent while the affordability to travel in second class has increased by only15 percent. Sir, just a month after the horrific Balasore accident in 2023 that claimed the lives of 296 passengers, the Government announced the Amrit Bharat Superfast Express service with non-air-conditioned sleeper class coaches. Yet the ticket price is 15-17 percent more than the normal fare. We should not forget that most of those who lost their lives in the tragic Balasore accident were the common people traveling without tickets. The decline of Indian Railways began in 2016, when the BJP Govt decided to stop railway allocation. As a devotee of Matua religion, in remembrance of Thakur Sri Sri Harichad Thakur and Sri Sri Guru Chand Thakur, I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of the Matua Community to our hon. Chief Minister, respected Bandopadhyay, who has served as Railway Minister in 2009, and established the Thakurnagar railway station as a model station. Hon’ble Railway Minister ought to express regret to every Indian citizen for making the backbone of the nation unstable. I again request him through you Sir to show some humbleness. Thank you.”
