I am worried and I have every reason to be worried. The Indian Railways do not belong to any one individual or to any one political party. It belongs to each and every citizen of India. And because it belongs to me as much as it belongs to Mamata Banerjee I am worried. Mamata Banerjee, who is trying every trick in her jhola to realize her dream, or should I say one point programme, of occupying the chair of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, claims, very proudly and very noisily, that she has done for Bengal in twenty months what no one would be able to do in 200 years. That statement in itself is very worrisome. Look what she has done to the railways in seventeen months. The railways which were doing remarkably well in the UPA-I government has now fallen flat on its face. And all thanks to the lady who aspires to bring “poriborton” to West Bengal, the state which, she proclaims has not seen any development in the last thirty-four years.
Mamata Banerjee has been screaming from every rooftop in Bengal to bring to the notice of everyone that the incumbent Bengal government is reeling under the burden of loans totaling Rs. 1.92 lakh crores. How far this figure, that is being tom-tomed by the lady, is true is any body’s guess. According to the figure available on the Reserve Bank of India website the actual amount is Rs. 1.69 lakhs crores. And this amount is the cumulative effect of borrowings since the 1950s. The Left front Government had not taken over at that time, isn’t it Ms. Banerjee? But this fact alone can never be the rational economic parameter to declare a state as “bankrupt”, because if it was so, then the central government had to declare, long ago, more than a dozen states as bankrupt. Do you know that the accrued loans of the Union Government during 2009-2010 are estimated to be around Rs. 35 lakhs crores? According to the Reserve Bank of India February 2010 data Uttar Pradesh leads the pack with a debt burden of Rs. 2.21 lakhs crores, closely followed by Maharashtra with a debt burden of Rs. 2.08 lakhs crores. To get a clearer perspective let us talk about the comparative study done by debt-income ration (GSDP). The RBI data communicates that the state holds 11th place amongst all the states and fourth amongst all the large states in terms of GSDP ratio. Moreover, the GSDP ratio which was 48% in West Bengal five years back has come down to 41%. This ratio for the national economy is far greater at 56% during the same period. These figures indicate that the financial condition of Bengal is well on the path to recovery. Get all your facts right, Ms. Banerjee, before you get on with your mission of fooling the naïve people of Bengal.
Now let us see how well the Mamata Banerjee run Indian Railways is doing. Just last week, the Railway Board chairman Vivek Sahai (How I pity this poor man! What a wrong time to assume this responsibility!) had to issue strict strictures to curb spendings as the railways faces a deficit of at least Rs. 2,200 crore. My humble question to the lady who has a solution to all the problems that plague West Bengal – how did you manage to do this? How did you manage to turn a cash surplus organization to one which has a mammoth deficit of Rs. 2,500 crores? And that to in just seventeen months! That I am sure needs some very clever administrative skills which you are endowed with! Where will this figure reach after the completion of your five-year term?
The condition of the only ministry run by your very efficient and capable self is so pathetic that payments to contractors in most zones have been stopped. As a result of this wretched condition many large projects are being stalled in every zone. But you are so shamelessly power hungry that you are bent on fooling the people of West Bengal. You are still bringing out full page advertisements in all leading newspapers (would you care to tell the innocent people who you are out to hoodwink how much each of these advertisements cost) and announcing one project after another. Would you care to tell the ordinary people of Bengal how much money is spent or should I say wasted by your ministry in organizing the lavish inaugurations or the foundation stone laying ceremonies? Would you want us to believe that all these projects would not cost money? And if they do where the money is going to come from when your cash reserve is only about Rs. 5,000 crore? Why are you not saying a single word about the “robust” financial health of the only ministry run by you? For some one who is so perturbed by the loan incurred by the incumbent state government isn’t this silence very disquieting? Someone who took less than two years to affect a combined net revenue shortfall of about Rs. 3,600 crore, would play havoc with the finances of West Bengal if she could lay her hands on it.
In her continued effort to fool the common people she is visiting different parts of the state with her entourage to announce a plethora of projects. The untrained, trusting people of Bengal, who have no means of knowing about the way the railway ministry is being run by the minister, is being deluded into believing that once she is voted to power she will wield her magic wand and set up industries, hospitals, stadiums, medical and nursing colleges et al even before we can bat an eyelid.
It is high time we the people of this state woke up to her mendacious ways. It is high time that we stopped her from taking us for granted. It is high time that we told her to shut up and stop duping us. It is high time that we realized that here is a lady who can ruin this state with her whimsical ways. It is high time that we realized that this lady, by her theatrics, can hold the attention of a large crowd but does not know how to run an administration. It is high time that we realized that running an administration is a very different ball game from holding rallies and delivering rousing speeches. It is high time that we recognize that being a rabble rouser is not the same as being an administrator. A street fighter opposing every government move does not necessarily mean a competent administrator who can lead the way. It is high time that we decided what is good for us. We, the ordinary people of West Bengal, want an able administrator to steer our state to the pinnacle of achievements rather than someone who thrives on populism and falsehood.
Sources: Reserve Bank of India, Times of India, Indian Express
Now let us see how well the Mamata Banerjee run Indian Railways is doing. Just last week, the Railway Board chairman Vivek Sahai (How I pity this poor man! What a wrong time to assume this responsibility!) had to issue strict strictures to curb spendings as the railways faces a deficit of at least Rs. 2,200 crore. My humble question to the lady who has a solution to all the problems that plague West Bengal – how did you manage to do this? How did you manage to turn a cash surplus organization to one which has a mammoth deficit of Rs. 2,500 crores? And that to in just seventeen months! That I am sure needs some very clever administrative skills which you are endowed with! Where will this figure reach after the completion of your five-year term?
The condition of the only ministry run by your very efficient and capable self is so pathetic that payments to contractors in most zones have been stopped. As a result of this wretched condition many large projects are being stalled in every zone. But you are so shamelessly power hungry that you are bent on fooling the people of West Bengal. You are still bringing out full page advertisements in all leading newspapers (would you care to tell the innocent people who you are out to hoodwink how much each of these advertisements cost) and announcing one project after another. Would you care to tell the ordinary people of Bengal how much money is spent or should I say wasted by your ministry in organizing the lavish inaugurations or the foundation stone laying ceremonies? Would you want us to believe that all these projects would not cost money? And if they do where the money is going to come from when your cash reserve is only about Rs. 5,000 crore? Why are you not saying a single word about the “robust” financial health of the only ministry run by you? For some one who is so perturbed by the loan incurred by the incumbent state government isn’t this silence very disquieting? Someone who took less than two years to affect a combined net revenue shortfall of about Rs. 3,600 crore, would play havoc with the finances of West Bengal if she could lay her hands on it.
In her continued effort to fool the common people she is visiting different parts of the state with her entourage to announce a plethora of projects. The untrained, trusting people of Bengal, who have no means of knowing about the way the railway ministry is being run by the minister, is being deluded into believing that once she is voted to power she will wield her magic wand and set up industries, hospitals, stadiums, medical and nursing colleges et al even before we can bat an eyelid.
It is high time we the people of this state woke up to her mendacious ways. It is high time that we stopped her from taking us for granted. It is high time that we told her to shut up and stop duping us. It is high time that we realized that here is a lady who can ruin this state with her whimsical ways. It is high time that we realized that this lady, by her theatrics, can hold the attention of a large crowd but does not know how to run an administration. It is high time that we realized that running an administration is a very different ball game from holding rallies and delivering rousing speeches. It is high time that we recognize that being a rabble rouser is not the same as being an administrator. A street fighter opposing every government move does not necessarily mean a competent administrator who can lead the way. It is high time that we decided what is good for us. We, the ordinary people of West Bengal, want an able administrator to steer our state to the pinnacle of achievements rather than someone who thrives on populism and falsehood.
Sources: Reserve Bank of India, Times of India, Indian Express
She promised 1,000 km of new lines every year but has not been able to deliver even 10 per cent of that.
ReplyDeletePayments to suppliers have been held back for the first time in the history of the Railways.
Railways-Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC)-is on the verge of derailment. Manmohan had laid the foundation stone of the project in 2006 but it has not gone beyond that stage.
GDP growth of 9 per cent requires total transport to grow at 10 per cent per year but the Railway is growing at only 7 per cent.