Railway Budget 2015: Read Full text of AAP's reaction
New Delhi, Feb 2015: As the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu presented his maiden Railway Budget 2015 in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Feb 26, he outlined four goals for improvement in the Indian Railways over the next five years, among many other reforms.
The goals are: giving a huge boost to customer experience, ensuring safer travel, modernisation of infrastructure and making Indian Railways financially self-sustainable, the minister said while presenting his maiden budget in the Lok Sabha.
Here is the Full Text of AAP's reaction on Rail Budget.
The AAP is of the view that the first rail budget of the BJP-led NDA government turned out to be a missed opportunity. The Narendra Modi government could have used its maiden rail budget to spell out its long term vision for the improvement of the health of railways, but it is unfortunately missing.
The people of the county had expected that the new government to lay down its roadmap to improve the efficiency of the railways by curbing the price distortion and corruption, two major problems currently plaguing this critical sector, but the budget appears to be silent on addressing these long term concerns and belies expectations of a long term vision.
There is nothing concrete in this budget on the improvement of safety and maintenance of the massive railway network across the country. Nearly 2.5 lakh posts are lying vacant in the railways and out of these 1.6 lakh posts are in departments directly concerned with the railways safety, but nothing has been done to fill up these posts.
The common man (aam aadmi) forms the bulk of railway passenger traffic, but the focus on such passengers is missing. Infact, the focus of the budget provides a reason for alarm in this aspect - the trend in the budget is to focus on the upper class of commuters, whose number is miniscule in terms of passenger traffic.
Facilities should be provided to all categories of passengers, but the focus on those who can spend more for facilities does not set a healthy trend.
The railways minister has made an honest confession about the large number of pending projects. The AAP agrees with the government that the focus should be on execution of existing projects, but in this respect too, the minister did not mention any roadmap on how the government plans to complete the job.
The
AAP,
in
principle,
does
not
oppose
Foreign
Direct
Investment
(FDI)
in
railways,
but
the
minister's
announcement
did
not
specify
in
which
field
does
the
NDA
government
propose
to
invite
the
FDI.
The
impression
created
is
that
the
government
is
ready
to
go
ahead
with
the
FDI
in
all
fields,
except
in
operations.
There
are
many
sensitive
sectors
in
Railways,
like
the
one
handling
the
spectrum
that
cannot
be
opened
to
foreign
investors.
The
hurry
to
attract
FDI
in
Railways
could
create
a
dangerous
situation
and
the
government
should
hold
widespread
consultations
before
going
ahead
with
the
introduction
of
FDI
in
railways.
The
thrust
on
implementing
the
Public
Private
Partnership
(PPP)
model
in
railways
is
a
dangerous
trend.
The
concept
of
PPP
model
so
far
in
the
country
has
been
that
the
public
sector
bears
the
risk
and
the
private
sector
walks
away
with
profit,
such
a
model
can
spell
disaster
for
the
railways.
The
AAP
does
not
agree
with
the
minister's
announcement
about
the
proposal
to
restructure
the
Railway
Board.
It
is
one
of
the
rare
board/corporation
in
the
government
sector
which
is
not
controlled
by
the
IAS
officers,
and
is
run
by
professionals.
Unless the government clearly specifies what kind of restructuring it wants, the announcement appears to be an attempt to undermine the Board's autonomy. Restructuring for improving the fiscal health of railways and bringing professionalism is welcome, but it cannot be allowed to become ministry Vs board fight.
The Aam Aadmi Party also sees a regional imbalance in announcement of new train services. A government cannot ignore the requirements of one region appease the other.
OneIndia News