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train tragedy

electoral compulsions would vanish. It is also for this
reason that Debroy also recommended doing away
with the rail budget. His reasoning is that if we have
a separate budget, the expectation of every MP is that
he could gift a train to his constituency. The other
most important aspect addressed by the committee
is loss-making passenger segments.
One of the issues which is long pending is the
wagon management system which requires
transparency. The productivity of its employees is
abysmally low as compared to world railways, as
admitted by the white paper.
No service is free anywhere in the world, nor is it
subsidised indefinitely. Already, Air India is fleecing
the exchequer. Further subsidisation of Railways by
the central government would mean that essential
sectors like education, health services, foreign
affairs, R&D, environment and pollution control
would have to suffer. Therefore, the emphasis of the
government should be to provide these essential
services to each and every citizen. Any subsidised
service or material provided is at the cost of another,
maybe even more important sector.
Financial aid given The Debroy committee strongly recommends that
to 10 families of a regulator be set up statutorily and not by executive
the train tragedy fiat. Debroy explains: “Why statutorily, because we
want the regulator to be independent and we want
the regulator to be accountable to Parliament. We
a casual approach to a major policy decision could want the regulator to be outside the clutches of Rail
play havoc with the lifeline of the country. Bhavan and with a separate budget, and selection
There has been talk of reforms in the railway sys- also needs to be independent. The Ministry of Rail-
tem and structure from decades, as this is the old ways would set only policies and regulator enforces
British system still on the run. Many committees the policy.”
and task forces have been set up, but the inertia of Goyal’s predecessor, Suresh Prabhu too had cov-
this giant is such that it has so far been able to thwart ered many steps in a single jump, merging the rail-
the forces of change. Prabhu appointed a committee way budget with the general budget. With this, he
under the chairmanship of Bibek Debroy an econo- has shed the aura of being an independent, exclusive
mist in Niti Ayog. Debroy made some critical obser- minister presenting a separate railway budget. He
vation on the structure, accounting and pricing. Any has also implemented plans to decentralise power at
corporate runs on the principle of maximisation of the zonal and divisional Level. However, whether the
profits, but this is not reflected if one looks at the mild-mannered Prabhu would be able to take hard
mission and vision of the railways. decisions to set up a regulatory authority for decid-
There may be arguments about the motto. How- ing freight and passenger fares and to reorganise
ever, it is clear that this is a transport and passenger and restructure the Railway Board, rationalise rail-
service, and has to be run on certain principles. As way cadre in view of constant bickering among vari-
per Debroy, the current system of accounting does ous services, would be interesting to watch.
not truly evaluate returns on investment by Rail- History will not forgive him if he leaves Indian
ways on any project, be it a new line, new station Railways with its successors in a condition where it
or new train. Debroy therefore recommends im- is unable to service the debt burden with low prof-
mediate introduction of commercial accounting, itability. His first innings was a bit too easy, with no
which only can determine the cost-benefit ratio and conflicts. But now the ball has started to spin, and
also attract private capital investment, badly the he will have to face vexatious issues which would
need of the hour. decide the fate of this great behemoth.
Once commercial accounting is in place, introduc-
tion of new trains merely to appease an MP or out of letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 15 november 2018 25 www.Tehelka.com

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