Mamta,Lalu and Indian Railways

Lalu was hailed as India's best Railway Minister.His Desi wisdom earned him admirers all over the world.undoubtedly he was the most popular Railway Minister.Indian Railways is the world's largest employer.It employs 1.6 million heads.In 2004 when Lalu took over as Railway Minister ,Indian Railways was almost bankrupt.But in 5 years time Lalu with his ingenuity made it a cash surplus organisation.The turnaround made by Indian Ralways, under Lalu's stewardship was made a case study for its students by IIM,Ahmedabad.Lalu's rustic wisdom said " Milk the cow fully,lest it would fall sick". His out of the box ideas were carried out by competent officers.He increased the wagon loads from 80 Metric tons to 90 Metric tons.This generated additional revenue of over 7500 crores.Delgation of powers was at its best during Lalu's regime.He took calculated risks.He decided a passenger train would be inspected and examined only after 3500 KMs and a freight train after 4500 KMs against the earlier practice of inspection after every trip.This made trains available for longer duration,and generated extra trips and extra revenue.Earlier for every inspection Railways took 16 hours after each trip.Lalu handled the Tatkal scheme in a different perspective.It turned out to be a money spinner for Railways and earned over 1000 crores.When the Tatkal scheme was introduced for the first time , there would be a single separate Tatkal coach per train.In otherwords a small number of berths were earmarked for those who could not reserve in advance and want to travel urgently.But this facility was available at a slightly higher cost.But Lalu changed the Tatkal scheme also.He permitted Tatkal booking in regular coaches also.This means those who can afford to pay more could book on Tatkal quota in regular coaches.He also allowed Tatkal booking 5 days before travel date.Railways charged a premium of RS 150 to Rs 300 on every Tatkal ticket booked.But all this was done at the expense of general quota tickets.It surely was a great disadvantage to the common man.But for railways it was a money spinner.It earned greater revenues for Railways.It was essentially a business decision,but against the common man.Now it seems Mamta is all set to reverse this.She might revert back to the old Tatkal scheme.She might also reduce the number of days permitted for Tatkal booking.In principle,Mamta's perspective is correct and is in the interest of the common man.But Railways would lose a considerable chunk of their income generated from Tatkal.Mamta has already indicated her budget would be pro people.But if implemented Railways earnings would surely drop.It is already reported that there is a drop in the freight earnings of Railways.One fervently hopes the Railways does not become RED again.Those days when the federal budgets are presented Mr.Palkiwala used to give his budget analysis.These speeches were delviered only in big metros.Once he delivered his budget analysis lecture at Lakshmi Sundaram Hall in Madurai.I was fortunate to hear his speech then.I am now reminded of what he said about 'budgets' then.He said 'budget is an annual exercise where economics is defeated at the hands of politics.'

Mayawati and her delusions

The UP Chief Minister Mayawati is all set to unviel about 40 statues in UP.This includes 6 statues of her own along with her mentorKanshi Ram.The statues of Ambedkar and other Dalit icons are also in the list.The total cost of all these statues are reported to be over Rs 100 crores.It is also reported the statue of Mayawati in Ambedkar Udyan alone costs around Rs1.55 crores.This is an offcial information given in response to an RTI query.She is obsessed not only with erecting statues,but also in building grand memorials and monuments. Extravagant memorials are being built as monuments for Ambedkar and Kanshiram.Her contention is that each political party has tried to construct memorials for their party leaders during their regime.Why should people make a big hue and cry when BSP is building its monuments.Teen Murti Bhavan,Jawarharlal Nehru Memorial is even cited in support of her claims.But the intriguing point is these memorials have 60 mammoth elephant statues(BSP symbol) made of expensive stones at an estimated cost of Rs 3000 crores.Down South Mr.Karunanidhi also has a penchant for erecting statues and building memorials.But to his credit,he did not erect his own statues.Also he had built memorials for all Netas cutting across party affiliations.He has built memorials for Kamaraj and Rajaji also.He did erect the huge monlith statue of Tiruvalluvar at Kanyakumari.Valluvar Kottam at Chennai is his brain child.Statues of Tamil literary giants along the Marina beach were all erected during his regime.Karunanidhi also has a liking for monumental arches.Lots of them were put up in many places of Tamil nadu during his regime.Jayalalitha and her party for her part did erect statues of MGR all over Tamil nadu.The most number of statues in Tamilnadu would be that of the DMK founder Anna and that of MGR.Whether it is Karunanidhi,Mayawati,Saddam Hussien, or NorthKorea's Kim,the underlying fact is their desire to find a place in history.But in Mayawati's case she is using whopping public money for her pet projects.She also intends to project these as tourist spots.But her adversary Mulayam says these monuments and statues are epitomes of corruption and misuse of public funds.He has also gone on record,that when his party returns to power all Mayawati statues would be bulldozed. Already there are two PIL petitions before the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court on Mayawati's spending spree.Even the SC has questioned Mayawati's fetish desire to install her own statues all over UP.Experts believe apart from spending 3000 crores, it may require an annual outlay of 300 crores to maintain these monuments thereafter .But Mayawati is unfazed by her critics and will go ahead with her projects.It would be of great interest to note how the courts deal with this PIL.Mayawati's arguments would pivot around memorials of leaders of other parties in the country and their worth.She would also play the communal card cleverly.She would cite that the number of monuments for Dalit icons are comparatively less when compared with that of upper caste leaders.Environmentalists say five of Mayawati's pet projects are being carried out at the expense of large green areas.This is something really deplorable.At a time when the whole world is concerned about Global warming,it is an unpardonable crime to destory large areas of green cover for the sake of monuments and statues.Hitler and Stalin had plans to build huge cities in their honour.Who knows,perhaps Mayawati also may be harbouring such plans.Lucknow could well be changed as 'Maya Nagar'.