Mr. Dinesh Trivedi's budget was a reasonable one coming after a long time from the Railway Minister's table. I do not want to go into as to what the political compulsions were, to avoid a populist budget - as has been the case all the while with goodies, specifically lined up for the minister's constituency. We've been lulled, till now, that the Indian Railways was running fine and therefore, excused a hike in fares for the last nine years or so which doesn't stand scrutiny when prices of all commodities have been going up! And naturally must have resulted in a financially unviable situation!
Let me be more specific. Much as it hurts you and me for having to shell out more money from our pockets while buying the tickets, one has to understand that enhanced prices are always justified for good services. And the outfit badly needs modernisation with emphasis on safety - both of which have been given priority as a large outlay of money has been set aside for them, this time.
It's time that people stopped playing politics over the Indian Railways. We need to have a vibrant, efficient, state-of-the-art railways that follow correct practices and provide us with quality service so that train journeys become enjoyable, safe and something that's preferred by every section of the society!
But I shall keep my fingers crossed till the budget takes its final form.
Having said that, being a 'mallu', I feel peeved that Kerala has been given a step motherly treatment insofar as new services/infrastructural improvements are concerned! Incidentally, much of the promises of the last year's budget is yet to find fruition!!
Tailpiece.
From a journalist friend of mine, there's a technical error when one says that a fare hike on railway tickets has not taken place for the last nine years. He's pretty clear that hikes had occurred when certain trains were upgraded as 'superfast' and a few others were added on to/deleted from the 'tatkal' scheme, a few years back when Ms. Mamta Banerjee was the minister for railways!
Let me be more specific. Much as it hurts you and me for having to shell out more money from our pockets while buying the tickets, one has to understand that enhanced prices are always justified for good services. And the outfit badly needs modernisation with emphasis on safety - both of which have been given priority as a large outlay of money has been set aside for them, this time.
It's time that people stopped playing politics over the Indian Railways. We need to have a vibrant, efficient, state-of-the-art railways that follow correct practices and provide us with quality service so that train journeys become enjoyable, safe and something that's preferred by every section of the society!
But I shall keep my fingers crossed till the budget takes its final form.
Having said that, being a 'mallu', I feel peeved that Kerala has been given a step motherly treatment insofar as new services/infrastructural improvements are concerned! Incidentally, much of the promises of the last year's budget is yet to find fruition!!
Tailpiece.
From a journalist friend of mine, there's a technical error when one says that a fare hike on railway tickets has not taken place for the last nine years. He's pretty clear that hikes had occurred when certain trains were upgraded as 'superfast' and a few others were added on to/deleted from the 'tatkal' scheme, a few years back when Ms. Mamta Banerjee was the minister for railways!
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