New Delhi, June 24: The Rail Bhavan drives the world’s largest railway network. Yet, officials in the railway ministry’s headquarters are chugging along direction-less.
With the rail budget scheduled for July 3, the babus are working overtime to put together the final document because railway minister Mamata Banerjee has been away, in West Bengal, for most of the time.
The Trinamool Congress chief has kept the promise she made after taking over the ministry: That she would spend five days a week in Bengal. Officials, however, are not amused as many key decisions, including the one on land acquisition for new lines, stay pending.
“It is true that the babus put the railway budget together. Even when Lalu Prasad was the minister, the nuts and bolts of the budget were put together by his officer on special duty (OSD) Sudhir Kumar and others. Yet, the [former] minister gave some inputs on the larger picture and other specific interventions. That is missing here,” a senior ministry official said.
Whenever Banerjee is in town, she tries to squeeze three days of work into one. “We have meetings which go on till late in the night. [And] it is a myth that Banerjee attends the Eastern Railways office or holds meetings there,” said another official, indicating that work remains pending when she is not in the capital.
Till now, the only directions given by her have been about restoring certain passenger amenities squeezed out due to the economic slowdown and significant changes in the menu of the pantry cars.
“There has been no decision yet on revising catering rates which have remained unchanged since 1998,” a senior official said.
Land acquisition for new rail lines and the East-West freight corridor are areas where policy decisions have still to be taken. Officials are waiting for direction on this.
Banerjee has, however, been in touch with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, sometimes calling him up to five times a day. But that has nothing to do with the finances of the railway ministry but only with the situation in West Bengal.
–Agencies