Empty Flood On The Tracks

Nowhere was this reflected better than the controversy generated over a Shatabdi to Amritsar, a city prime minister I.K. Guj-ral visited earlier this year. The proposal—over 200 new trains have been introduced since Paswan took over in May 1996—for yet another train came from minister Ram Vilas Paswan, ostensibly to please the prime minister and his 'home' state. Initially, the officers refused to oblige, saying the idea was not feasible. After much dithering, Paswan had his way ( see interview ), but on the eve of its flag-off on October 2, Vikram Chopra, general secretary of the Northern Railway Officers Association (NROA), noted with "great concern that the administration is going ahead with the inauguration of a Shatabdi despite the fact that the basic infrastructure required for maintenance is not established." According to him, the railway management had admitted that the infrastructure was unlikely to be in place in the immediate future. Says Chopra: "It is distressing to find that some orders have been issued to reduce the load of Shatabdi Express trains going to Kalka and Chandigarh surreptitiously in order to run this train. It is strange that just to meet the target date of inauguration, the railway is prepared to rob Peter to pay Paul. This is perhaps for the first time that loads of such trains are being reduced on the eve of the puja holidays, when normally there will be a demand to enhance the load."  Introducing new trains has not been Paswan's sole prerogative. Since 1991, a total of 735 new trains have been introduced. According to one estimate, successive railway ministers have played to their respective galleries with a host of populist measures to chalk out a constituency of their own. During his brief tenure, Suresh Kalmadi launched 67 new trains; Jaffer Sharief over 300. The result: a complete breakdown of infrastructural facilities leading to a marked rise in accidents. Even as we went to press, there was news that a Delhi-Ahmedabad train had derailed near Jaipur. Railway mandarins say most new trains are launched on saturated trunk routes. Which gives rise to a string of problems. There is little time for track and signal equipment maintenance and inspection of rolling stocks; and since these routes are constantly busy with several superfast trains plying on them, not one section can be closed down for repairs. According to one estimate, none of these routes—Howrah-Delhi, Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Howrah via Nagpur—can spare more than three hours for any serious inspection or repairs. The report of the chief commissioner, railway safety, which was tabled in Parliament recently, pointed out the flaws. In it, the commissioner indicted the tendency of the railway administration to introduce high-speed trains without first creating the necessary framework. According to the report, "in providing maintenance facilities to high speed trains, the upkeep of other passenger trains are in default. This is an unsafe practice." But the railway minister disagrees with the officers' concern for safety. On the contrary, he claims that budgetary allocation meant for safety have been under-utilised: "In 1994-95, the budgetary estimate for signal systems was Rs 226.78 crore. Of that only Rs 168.86 crore was utilised; in 1995-96 Rs 275.73 crore was allocated while the expenditure was Rs 208.90 crore. Similarly in 1996-97, Rs 229.94 crore was spent of an estimate of Rs 256.89 crore." But that is not the only expenditure the railway ministry has been imposing on a cash-strapped organisation. Paswan, often referred to as an inauguration-a-day minister, announced 44 new projects estimated at Rs 8,000 crore this year alone. The hitch: none of them has the crucial approval of the Planning Commission or the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Before the projects are cleared, there are certain areas which have to be looked into: new railway lines, gauge conversion work and electrification, which haven't been done. The catch: total outlay for all these projects for 1997-98 is only Rs 1,600 crore, so where does the additional money come from? THE propensity of politicians to use railways for furthering individual gain is not new. Paswan went a step further.He announced, all without clearance of course, the setting up of 45 'unremunerative' lines to backward areas incurring a huge expenditure. But opposition to Paswan's flights of fancy has been coming from entities like the Planning Commission. In August, the Railway Board, which included representatives from the Commission, shot down six projects worth Rs 3,500 crore. The biggest dampener on the railway minister, however, has been the open criticism of his personal expenses and liberal doses of largesse. According to the agitating railway officers, the minister's monthly food bill is Rs 3 lakh. The railways had to pick up a Rs 5 lakh tab for Paswan's Iftaar party. No sooner had the local press picked up the story than Paswan decided to hit back. "The reports are exaggerated. I bring food from my house. Where is the question of running up these huge bills? I have instructed my ministry to serve only tea to visitors and to stop inserting full-page advertisements in newspapers." Paswan has been forced to adopt such obvious save-money measures. For, his on-the-house distribution of money from the railway exchequer has raised quite a few eyebrows. In a unique system of 'rewarding' the railway staff, Paswan has gone overboard. In the last six months alone, Paswan has distributed Rs 1.11 crore as cash rewards. On July 21, he visited his constituency Hajipur in Bihar and awarded Rs 20,000 to eight officers working there. The same day he doled out Rs 50,000 to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel who had organised a function in his honour. On July 12, he gifted Rs 20,000 to RPF personnel who escorted him to riot-hit areas in Mumbai. The catering staff in Mumbai was given Rs 5,000; five drama troupes in Delhi were gifted Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh was lavished upon a group of artistes from Ranchi. But in the ongoing drama, some officers say the minister's attitude demoralised them. In an internal note circulated by the minister recently, Paswan appeared to be berating officialdom. "There has been an abnormal increase in electric and diesel engine failures on almost all the railways, particularly the central and northern railways. While there may be problems in other sheds, an analysis indicated that nothing had been done to improve the performance of even notorious sheds like Jhansi. It is surprising that despite the issue having been discussed many times, the Jhansi shed is short of spares and is cannibalising the engines in the shed to provide for parts for repairs..." Officials say such memos are commonplace, but Paswan claims he is just trying to infuse transparency and accountability into the system—and that is hurting the officers and vested interests no end. The officers obviously do not buy that line. Says R.M. Agrawal, general secretary of the agitating Federation of Railway Officers Association (FROA): "We are loyal civil servants committed to the Railways. We are not protesting, but just pointing out certain anomalies in the system." But the anomalies may be one too many. Well-placed sources say the removal of two general managers, N.C. Sinha from central railway and S. Ramanathan from the south-eastern sector, was prompted by different considerations. Sinha was reportedly asked to accommodate victims of anti-Dalit violence in Mumbai on verbal orders which he declined; while Ramanathan passed tenders that were not to the minister's liking. Some effects of the politicisation of the railways on caste lines may be already showing. The once-powerful rail unions seem to be split on the issue of caste support. Even during this round of agitation, scheduled caste officers and employees have kept away. About 20 per cent of FROA members belong to scheduled and backward castes. Says K. Hasan, secretary-general of the Indian Railways Promotee Officers Federation: "We have to review whether we can extend our support to the FROA." Paswan clearly has his hands full. Apart from coping with the pressure on him after details of his public and personal spending were highlighted, he has to look at other issues—like the impending pay hike in accordance with Pay Commission recommendations and the intractable increase in railway fares. While the decision on the hike would depend on what the other United Front constituents have to say, there are a host of other in-house problems which the rail minister will have to tackle. In such troubled times in his career, that is probably the last thing on Paswan's agenda.