(CLICK ON CAPTION/LINK/POSTING BELOW TO ENLARGE & READ)

Friday, March 25, 2011

RAILWAY BUDGET-ONLY A WISH LIST TO SERVE POLITICAL AGENDA

PRESS RELEASE: 25.02.2011

This year's Railway Budget is clearly a wish-list presented by the Railway Minister of UPA-II Government. This is specifically so, for the new projects and industries announced by the Minister. All these are there without any funds or time frame.

Various announcements made earlier have not been implemented and nearly 114 pending projects have been bundled together as Pradhan Mantri's Rail Vikas Yojana, to be undertaken by the next five year plan. This being the situation, the new announcements have been made and it is clear that there have not been any follow-up on earlier announcements nor can we expect positive action on the new announcements.

Various new trains have been introduced without enough engines and coaches and also there are not enough tracks for all these. As regards the vacancies in Indian Railways, manpower has come down from 13.94 lakhs as on 31.03.2008 to 13,61,519 within the last two years, as per the Annual Report of Indian Railways presented along with the budget. CITU strongly opposes the “Liberalised Active Retirement Scheme” announced by the Railway Minister.

Indian Railways have become virtually bankrupt as is clear form the details presented to the Parliament. Railway Minister is paving the way for privatization of railways through her overdependence on PPP model for resource mobilization. This is the result of this prime sector being utilized only for a political agenda without a proper administrative policy and directions for ensuring viability, costing very dearly to the country

Courtesy: www.citucentre.org/

No comments: