Trinamool's exit revives railways hopes
Friday September 21, 2012 07:34:44 PM,
Amit Agnihotri, IANS
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New Delhi: The
government Friday expressed hope it would now
be able to attend to the ailing railway ministry, freed of the
Trinamool
Congress' hold with the regional party quitting the Congress-led
UPA.
"Railways is a key infrastructure ministry vital for economic
development of
the country. There is a need to restore its fiscal health and
technological
strength. Safety of passengers is a prime and compelling need,"
Minister of
State for Planning Ashwani Kumar told IANS.
"The railways spends all its earnings on just running the network.
I hope
suitable measures will be taken to address these issues," he said.
Government sources said it was for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and
Congress president Sonia Gandhi to decide whether the key
infrastructure
ministry goes to the Congress or is given to an ally.
Eyebrows have been raised about the Trinamool's handling of the
ministry
overseeing a network that carries 22 million passengers on 11,000
trains per
day - under Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Roy, barring the short term
of Dinesh
Trivedi in UPA-II.
Roy's long absences from office, much like Banerjee's, had become
a cause for concern. Insiders said key decisions were delayed
which impacted the safety and security of the world's second
largest train network.
Since Roy took office March 20, he followed Banerjee in spending
most of his
time attending to party work in Kolkata. That's because he holds
the No.2
slot in the Trinamool.
According to railway ministry sources important files were being
regularly
sent to Kolkata for Roy's information and approval - like during
Banerjee's
tenure.
As a result, he missed many cabinet meetings.
Roy, in fact, had come into office in extremely controversial
circumstances.
Banerjee had vacated the portfolio after the Trinamool ended more
than three
decades of Left rule in West Bengal and became the state's chief
minister in
summer of 2011.
She nominated Trivedi as railway minister last year but
recommended his
dismissal in March 2012 when he proposed hikes in certain classes
of
passenger fares in the railway budget for 2012-13.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appreciated Trivedi's budget but had
to give
in to Banerjee's diktats and removed him. Roy was given the
ministry despite
the fact that as a junior railway minister he had refused to visit
the site
of a major train accident in Assam in July 2011.
"The minister's absence indicated a lack of a sense of
responsibility," said
sources.
"A minister's presence ensures that senior officials are on the
alert. Being
a cabinet minister is a full time job, but Roy's attitude was akin
to that
of a feudal lord," a senior railway official told IANS.
In the past three years, there was no forward movement on
improving railway
safety and modernisation, said the official.
However, Trivedi during his brief stint had tried to address the
issues by
setting up two expert panels headed by former Atomic Energy
Commission
chairman Anil Kakodkar and adviser to prime minister on innovation
Sam
Pitroda.
The reports have been gathering dust since February.
"We hope the lifeline of the nation will get the attention due to
it," said
a railway official.
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