Nilachakra

Railway Budget 2009 - Negligence to Orissa

Jaya Jagannath,

Shame to say but Indian political system is so corrupt that ministers at centre enjoy their power for their own gain and consider their position as their parental property. A cheap tactics of winning the election by reducing all high valued commodities before elections to fetch votes and then increasing the price by double the reduced cost after elections. Needless to say, they dog fight for power, black mail the aspiring group of parties demanding for a special ministry ( A concept very similar to how a kidnaper demand for huge ransom to release the captive ), and then they start their dirty game of misusing the their power and thus neglecting the rest of the country, they start dumping all benefits to own constituency, state and people.

Our state Orissa seems to be cursed forever. Always ignored, neglected, betrayed and dealt with stepmother hood attitude of centre government when it comes to either allocating revenue for our state development, sanctioning a central university, releasing disaster relief or even providing minimum basic livelihood. The recent stroke of disappointed is railway ministry releasing less than half of the demand for railway developments.

Facts of disappointment :

• Orissa generates more than Rs. 5000 crores of revenue per year from Railways, but in return railway ministry sanctioned only Rs 715.22 crore this year for railway developments. (Mamata banerjee during her earlier roles as railway minister had given just Rs. 178 crore in 2001 2002, Rs. 194 crore in 2003 – 2004 and Lalu prasad yadav had given Rs. 949 crore in 2008 - 2009 )

• Orissa propose for the construction of North-South and East-West railway corridor

• Though the state had demanded for setting up of a coach factory in the state, a new coach factory is now being set up in Kolkata, which already has densest of rail infrastructures in the country.

• Orissa had sought 14 new train against which only six trains have been given. (Mamata has announced in her budget 53 rail connectivity proposals of which 22 are in West Bengal )

• Against Orissa’s proposal for the increase in frequency of five trains, only one train has been allotted.

• Our state demanded three new coaching depots and introduction of new EMU or DMU trains which were not agreed upon.

• The union Budget does not have increased allocation of funds for KBK districts (While cyclone in West Bengal special assistance of Rs 1000 crores is allocated ,there is nothing for Orissa relating to 2008 floods )

Railway Budget at a glance :

Total budget expenditure for the country for 2009-10 will Rs 10,28,032 cr. Total Investment of Rs 40,745 crore in the current fiscal ( up from Rs 36,773 crore in the previous financial year ), Rs 12,393 crore on railway research, Rs 5,135 crore on Road safety works (road over and under bridges), Rs 1,906 crore on gauge conversion, Rs 1,797 crore on machinery and plants. Rs 2,054 crore for restoration of dismantled lines. Rs 2,921.70 crore for building new lines. Rs 1,526 crore for amenities of its staff and passengers. Rs 4,247.28 crore on locomotives. Rs 3,616.61 crore on the carriages. Rs 8,121 crore needed ( against Rs 11,066 crore in the previous fiscal ). Total expenditure amounting to Rs 82,504 crore and total receipts at Rs 90,626 crore.

A decade long tale of negligence :

Broadly visualizing the scenario, Orissa (The third best preferred state for investment in India, the most favorite destination of industrialists, Front runner at progress report among all smart states )is still treated like a step son of central government. Extreme negligence by Railways has paralyzed Orissa and revenue is being looted since ever. Ever seen the net like woven rail network in UP, Bihar and West Bengal, in Orissa there is only two links ( Howrah - Bombay and Howrah - Madras ), that too been non-electrocuted for decades. Orissa was loosing more than Rs. 3600 crores of revenue per year to the hands of West Bengal Govt. due to mineral ore transportation via Haldia Port. Ores instead of Paradeep port and minerals were looted from Orissa thru following five feeder rail links to Haldia port thru howrah - Bombay main line. Imagine these 5 railway link lines were like 5 fingers of a hand that was put inside Orissa's pot and stealing revenue since decades.

• Orissa MP Sri. Anant Nayak was the first person to raise an alarm on this issue in Parliament. In 1973 Sir Biju Pattanaik planned to rail link Bansapani with Jakhapura to reach Paradeep Port. During 1993-94 Railway minister Kanhu Charan Lenka executed the project and it got completed with the catalytic efforts of Sri. Naveen Pattanaik with a green signal from Railway minister Sri. Lalu Prasad Yadav ( Of course with another holy intension of connecting Bihar with Puri dham in a shortest possible rail link) followed by extension of several trains to Puri. Thus our main objective was partially achieved. Other potential revenue generating rail links like Bimalagarh - Talcher, Keonjhar - Badam Pahar, Keonjhar - Barsuan is still to be constructed and prioritized.

• In Howrah - Madras coast line Vijayanagaram - Kharagpur section that covers whole of Orissa was deliberately ignored till 1993. All trains have to run on diesel engines in this section inside Orissa and rest part of eastern railway was electrocuted. This was like an insult to Orissa. In 1993 then railway minister Sri. Kanhu charan Lenka under guidance and supervision of his majesty Sir. Biju Pattanaik planned and started Electric - traction work and completed the same in 2005.

• Paradeep Port was intentionally not connected to any of the mines or Industries in Orissa, to ensure Orissa govt. loose the custom export duties. Recently it got connected to Howrah - Madras main line ( after 30 years of the port been built ).

• Internal rail links were neither connecting major cities of Orissa to each other nor to our only port Paradeep.

• Major city railway station were maintained like "C" grade stations due to lack of funding. Bhubaneswar being the capitol of Orissa, was having only 3 low grade platforms, underdeveloped comparative to any rail junctions in AP or WB.

• Our MPs during those days were neither sincere nor regular to Parliament. If few of them went to parliament they were sitting at far corners and sleeping for times. Back home they were kept ignorant of all these and were even in some cases told by party state head office not to raise such issues in Parliament. Even some MPs were unable to read and analyze the railway time table and map.

• Due to lack of proper rail line network inside Orissa, each day around 20 to 25 thousand heavy vehicles were running thru the state. Result was high risk to citizens and terrible condition of highways.

• Sri Jagannath Dham, puri one of the most popular hub of world cultural heritage was not properly connected with other parts of India with rail and road lines. 20 pairs of trains run to puri on a daily basis, but surprisingly on a single line. Puri railway station lacks sufficient platforms, passenger amenities and even a central terminal facility. On the contrary Tirupati railway station is well connected to Chennai, Gudur, Hyderabad, Bangalore. As like Tirupati, Puttaparthy & Madurai, Puri neither has a helipad nor airport. Thanks to Naveen Pattanaik government at least that due to his repeated efforts POSCO is going to construct Puri - Konark - Paradeep rail line for 100 kilometer.

Any way the days are brighter ahead as our state governance is excellent. We are entering into a evolutionary revolution of prosperity. Let us have a blind faith on that chaka akhi, he the supreme lord will protect us from all darts of politics. Jaya Jagannath.  

Regards
Team Nilachakra