A major train collision near Chennai that has taken lives of 9 people (the expected figure to go up) and injuring 9 people. The accident took place when a passenger train was hit from behind by an Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) train. This is a third major train accident in a span of 2 months. It seems to me that the politics of West Bengal and Prime Ministerial ambitions of our Rail Minister (Mamata Banerjee) has resulted in a neglected Rail ministry. The sorry state of affairs of Rail safety shown in abysmal rail safety record this year is a reflection of “how cheap” is the life of an ordinary man in India.

The other two major disaster’s have been as follows

July 10, 2011 – Kalka Mail derails near Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh killing 70 people and injuring more than 300.

July 07, 2011 – A Mathura Chhapra Express train rams into a bus carrying wedding guests around 2 a.m. at an unmanned railway crossing in Thanagaon, Kanshiram Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh, killing 38 and injuring 30

I just hope this lust for power does not take precedence over safety of passengers.

Image via Wikipedia

I am a proud Indian. From the very first day the world realized that I could listen and speak, the word’s of ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Jana Gana Mana…’ were fed into my ears with religious delight. My parents, teachers, gurus, friends and everyone sang those words of praise for the country and its rich heritage as if they were nurturing their own child. Like a good son, good student and a good friend, I followed the social norms of patriotism. I grew older to learn about partition, corruption, Gandhis, communal riots, swiss banks accounts, black money, indifference towards terrorism, communism, naxalites, bofors, nandigram and a lot more. The same joyous chant over years became a chant of apathy at my own state, and despite the economic progress shown in the last two decades, my feelings towards my country don’t become any stronger. Although optimists may say, I can do my bit towards the country (which I am doing), the leadership, the entire bureaucracy seems hopeless. More than 100 crore were wasted in common wealth games, more than 50,000 crore was the loss in the 2G scam, more than 1500 crore was the loss due to Mayawati’s statue building spree. Can’t this money bloody feed the hungry? Can’t this be used for creating more jobs? Can’t this be used to settle the Maoists? Can’t this be used to provide more security to women? Can’t this be used in giving the goddamn bloody Indian some respect?

We as Indians have been humiliated by the impotence of leadership and the lust of politicians. They have brought to this country nothing more than shame and suffering. Like an average person looking to lead a respectable life, all I have got is tokenism. They show me progress by showing me IPL, they show me progress by showing me more TV channels, they show me progress by building roads. What they don’t realize is that the money of IPL does not come to me, it still revolves with the politicians, the money on TV Channels is still with politicians (Kalaignar TV, 2G scam), and building roads in 2 years that should not take more than 6 months is not helping me in any way. All I get is inconvenience when a politician’s car passes by, manholes in the road and a toll tax to pay (So that’s again from my pocket). Does an impotent politician deserve all that security, when his or her life is adding to shame. India’s deepest hour of humiliation was not when terrorists attacked Mumbai, but it is now when our leaders do nothing about it. Its humiliating because I know god is also blinded and will do nothing to the bad karma they have brought upon this great nation. Their bad karma will have to faced by us in the form of humiliation and disgust till the time an uproar takes place. The impotence of our democracy is right in our faces, the voice of our prime minister is still a rare sound bite, and corruption has seeped in to our blood through the lustful swords of the torchbearers of democracy. Ha! Our Democracy.

This independence day has to be a day of thinking and planning. We need to plant the seed of independence from this humiliation that has been brought upon us like the misfortune resulting from the bad karma of our leadership. They have filled the pure land of India with poisons of corruption, hatred, impotence and greed. Its time to take the path of reverting this karma. The nature of path (peaceful or violent) depends on you vision and karma. Each path will lead to a different outcome, but if the intended outcome is purity of this holy land, you need to work with a noble and selfless intent.

The Gujarat High Court

11 convicts in the Godhra train burning case were on 1st march 2011 handed down death sentence while 20 others were given life imprisonment by a special court in the 2002 Godhra incident incident.

In 2002, the coach (S-6) of the train Sabarmati Express coming from Bihar (Darbhanga) destined to Gujarat (Ahmedabad) was burned in Godhra (Gujarat) . About 58 people were burned to death, which consists of mostly Hindu Pilgrims.

This event triggered a widespread communal violence in Gujarat that resulted in deaths of about 790 to 2000 Muslims and about 254 Hindus.

In the very first police FIR after the incident, the incident was viewed as an unplanned mob fury.

But, a special investigation team (SIT) of Gujarat state police put forth an argument that the act was pre-planned by a Muslim Group. It was said by the police that they had stockpiled about 140 liters of petrol a day before the attacks had to take place and the very purpose of these attacks was to kill the Kar-Sewaks.

In 2004, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav appointed Justice U C Banerjee to investigate Godhra incident.The Railways Ministry setup a commission that reported in 2005 that the fire was an accident. The Gujarat high court ruled the formation of this inquiry commission as “illegal” and “unconstitutional”. At present, all the reports of the commission by Railways stand invalid. Moreover, the outcome of this report has been questioned by BJP as politically motivated as its findings coincide with elections.

Special judge P. R. Patel considering this case as “rarest of rare” pronounced death penalty for 11 out of the 31 convicted in the case while 20 others were sentenced to life imprisonment.

“The court looking into their active role in the conspiracy and setting afire the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express train near Godhra, gave death penalty to 11 people,” public prosecutor J. M. Panchal said.

The court also slapped punishment on them under various other sections, which will be concurrent to their life term.

The prosecution had sought death sentence for all the 31 convicts, saying that it was a heinous act.

A special fast track court convicted 31 accused in Godhra train burning case.

Another 63 people were acquitted in the Godhra train burning conspiracy.

The special fast track court was appointed by Gujarat High Court after orders from the supreme court of India.

Mint Reports

Defence counsel I. M. Munshi said the convicts will definitely appeal against the punishment awarded to them.

“It (the punishment) is very difficult to swallow. Till we get the copy of the judgement, we cannot comment much,” Munshi said.

We definitely don’t what is more difficult to swallow – The killing of innocent people or the death sentence to those killed innocents. I think its the former.

Godhra Train Burning Results

Godhra verdict: Death for 11, life term for 20 – Economy and Politics – livemint.com.

Related Articles

• Godhra verdict pronounced (epiloguepress.wordpress.com)

Pranab Mukherjee

Union Budget 2011: Tax Expectations.

Our finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will have to walk the tightrope by curbing inflation and boosting growth while addressing concerns over black money.

There are indications that the finance minister will announce increase in tax exemption but at the same time increase service tax and excise duty on manufactured products such as cars and TV sets to plug the fiscal deficit.

There is an indication that to cushion the tax blows, he may help ease petrol and diesel prices a bit by announcing tax cuts on the fuels.

There can be a tax immunity scheme that could help draw out concealed incomes to turn them into something productive.

Mukherjee may have some good news for the salaried class, with the government considering a marginal rise in the income tax exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh per year from the existing Rs 1.60 lakh to give people more money to offset inflation.

Presently, the existing annual tax exemption limits stand at Rs 1.6 lakh for men, Rs 1.9 lakh for earning women and Rs 2.4 lakh for senior citizens.

Pranab walks the tightrope – Hindustan Times.

1. Checking inflation and enhancing agricultural productivity
2. Lifting supply-side constraints to economic growth
3. Executing the long overdue fiscal correction.

Moreover the current political situation will not help the government in taking concrete steps for uplifting the economy. Like Mamata Banerjee, the politics of appeasement is expected to show at the union budget.

In the politics of appeasement, there is going to greater allocation to Rural India. The FMCG sector appears favourably positioned to gain from the coming Union Budget.

Fiscal deficit – poor quality of fiscal consolidation in FY12 will follow owing to the political scenario.

The congress led coalition has seen a dip in its popularity and it will try to boost its reputation by appeasing the masses. It is all set to take the populist card, just like Mamata Banerjee in the Railway Budget 2011.

Read More on Railway Budget.

Rail Budget 2011 : Economic Focus with Human Face

Railway Budget 2011- Causes for Indian Rail financial crisis

This time, the railway budget promised a dividend of Rs4,104.50 crore in this fiscal. It is 26% lower than Rs6,608.46 crore proposed in Mamata Banerjee’s 2010 budget.

Another feature of this budget was that it maintained the passenger fares constant. It has been the eight such year when the budget has not touched upon the passenger rates.

Moreover the freight rates too were kept constant.

Where will the money for new projects come from ?

Railways is looking to the debt market to finance its new projects especially infrastructure related projects.

Rail Budget 2011 : Economic Focus with Human Face

Mint Reports

The budget documents showed the railways had lowered the money transferred to its depreciation reserve fund by Rs1,900 crore for 2011-12 as compared with Banerjee’s projection last year. The fund is used to maintain and replace its assets.

Other than a lower transfer to the depreciation fund, Sahai said revamping the product mix during the fiscal to capitalize on the increasing magnitude of coal imports into India protected its receipts. Typically, two-thirds of receipts come from freight, primarily coal.

The Long Term issues

This year’s capital spending is to be financed partly through some of the railways’ reserve funds. These funds have seen a significant decline in net accretions over the years.

Mint Reports “In 2009-10, the last year for which final numbers are available, the aggregate closing balance of all funds fell by more than two-thirds in a single year to Rs5,032.06 crore.”

This railway budget has been silent on the big projects such as the Dedicated Freight Corridor. It has not indicated where the money for it will come and how long will it take to complete it. We discussed the case of Dedicated Freight Corridor and the concerns about Indian Railways Financial Health

Railway Budget 2011 – Dedicated Freight Corridor Project

The proposed Plan

Mint Reports, “In the budget estimates for 2011-12, the Plan outlay of Rs57,630 crore is to be met from Rs20,454 crore of market borrowings, including Rs10,000 crore of tax-free bonds.“

Railways is in a position where it can no longer fund its projects through internal accruals of cash flows. The market borrowings are to funded through Indian Railways Finance Corp Ltd and it will carry an unwritten sovereign guarantee.

Railway Budget 2011- Causes for Indian Rail financial crisis

The total receipts of the railways in 2011-12 are projected at Rs1.09 trillion.

The dividend proposed is Rs6,734.72 crore.

The operating ratio (ratio of working expenses to gross earnings) is projected to improve marginally to 91.1% from around 98%.

The budget documents show that Indian railways expects to increase its contribution to the depreciation reserve fund by 23%.

Mamata going to market for money – Home – livemint.com.

Indian Railways Minster: Mamata Banerjee

Highlights of Railways Budget 2011-12

• No hike in passenger fares
• No hike in freight rates
• Introduction of 9 non-stop Duronto Trains
• Introduction of 3 Shatabdis
• Reduction in the senior citizen age for women from 60 years to 58 years
• Concession on senior citizens (Men above 60 years) from 30% to 40%
• Announcement of a metro coach factory in Singur (West Bengal)
• Announcement of Rail Industrial Park in Jelligham
• integrated suburban network for Kolkata and 34 new services for the Kolkata metro

Her announcements for the state evoked protests from members including those from Bihar, UP and Kerala, but she appealed to them to be patient for her other announcements.

• Extension of concession for physically- challenged persons and Kirti and Shaurya Chakra awardees to travel in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains
• Extending facility of card passes to parents of unmarried posthumous Paramvir Chakra and Ashok Chakra gallantry award winners.
• Induction of 16,000 ex-servicemen in the Railways by March.

Mint Reports, “We have taken a two-point approach,” Banerjee told parliament. “On the one hand by sustainable, efficient and rapidly growing Indian Railways, and on the other, by an acute sense of social responsibility towards the common people of this nation.”

“We have attempted to combine a strong economic focus … with a human face,” she added.

The budget proposes the highest-ever plan outlay of Rs. 57,630 crore for 2011-12.

The gross budgetary support has been projected at Rs. 20,000 crore, diesel cess Rs. 1,041 crore, internal resources Rs. 14,219 crore and market borrowing at Rs. 20,954 crore.

The budget estimates for 2011-12 projects a freight loading of 993 million tonne and a passenger growth of 6.4%.

Gross traffic receipts has been estimated at Rs. 1,06,239 crore, exceeding the Rs. 1 trillion mark for the first time, despite pressure on finances on account of Pay Commission payout.

Ordinary working expenses have been assessed at Rs. 73,650 crore and appropriation to depreciation reserve fund pegged at Rs. 7,000 crore.

Provision of Rs. 6,735 crore has been made for dividend payment and the excess for Railways for the new fiscal has been projected at Rs. 5,258 crore, with an operating ratio of 98.1 per cent.

On the financial performance for the current year, the budget disclosed that disruption of train movement resulted in a loss of Rs. 1,500 crore and Rs. 2,000 crore due to the ban on export of iron ore.

Loading target was reduced by 20 million tonne (MT) to 924 MT.

Gross traffic receipts have been fixed at Rs. 94,840 crore, which is higher by Rs. 75 crore over budget estimates.

The ordinary working expenses has been fixed at Rs. 67,000 crore, an increase of Rs. 2,000 crore over BE and the current dividend liability to be fully discharged.

The next year’s budget provides Rs. 9,583 crore for new lines. A target of 1,300 kms of new lines, 867 kms of doubling of lines and 1,017 kms of guage conversion has been targeted in the new fiscal.

Duronto Express

The new Duronto expresses will run between Allahabad- Mumbai, Pune-Ahmedabad, Sealdah-Puri, Secunderabad- Vishakhapatnam, Madurai-Chennai, Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai Central-New Delhi, Nizamuddin-Ajmer and Shalimar-Patna.

Double-Decker services

Air-conditioned double-decker services are proposed to be introduced on Jaipur-Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai routes.

Shatabdi Services

The three new Shatabdi services will run between Pune- Secunderabad, Jaipur-Agra and Ludhiana-Delhi.

Smart Card

The Minister announced the introduction on pilot basis of a pan-India, multi-purpose ‘Go India´ smart card, which would be a single-window package for passengers for seamless payment for tickets for long distances, suburban, metro journeys.

Rail Budget 2011| Mamata focuses on “common people” – Economy and Politics – livemint.com.

Dr Manmohan Singh

Opposition charged the government saying that the ministry of finance and telecom were not on the same page on 2G spectrum allocation .

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in his reply appeared to blame A Raja for the faulty implementation of the telecom policy. He said that these problems will now be looked into by the JPC, they are being looked into by the PAC and if there are any criminal aspects, they are looked into by CBI.

ET Reports

Dr Manmohan Singh said he was “categorically” assured by Raja that the policy of first-come first-served was being implemented appropriately. “Subsequent developments suggest that this was not the case.” Singh said the “public impatience” over action against the guilty was understandable but the government must follow the due process of law. “We are making every effort. Those found guilty will be dealt with under law,” he asserted.

The ministry of Finance earlier had different views but they were later narrowed down and sorted with regard to 2G spectrum pricing. Hence there is no reason to question allocation

Telecom policy sound; fault lies in its implementation, says PM – The Economic Times.

Related Articles

• ‘I am helpless,Manmohan Singh’ on 2 G scam. (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
• Raja never discussed FCFS policy, says PM (hindu.com)
• ‘Telecom policy sound, implementation faulty’ (hindu.com)

(Read about the causes of Indian Railways financial crunch here)

The consequences of this financial crunch on the DFC project

• The Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project, is expected to cost around Rs. 77,000 crore. This includes the costs of borrowing and inflation.
• The DFC project is being banked on heavily to remove the congestion in the rail network and allow trains to move at the maximum 140 Kmph.
• The DFC project is important because a higher speed on both passenger and freight trains means that the railways has a competitive advantage over Airways and Roadways.
• The DFC project, which was announced in 2005 (set to complete in 2012) has not yet taken off due to land acquisition problems and alignment of railway lines.
• It was to connect the West (Mumbai) with the east (Kolkatta) including North (Delhi) with dedicated tracks.

Forbes reports that “just as the decks had been cleared for the Railways — after it made substantial progress in tying up funds from the World Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation — to start funding the project, it has become cash-strapped.“

ET reports, “To attract more resources, the railway minister is likely to set the pitch for public-private partnerships, or PPP, even though most of the schemes announced during this fiscal have not elicited much interest from corporates.”

When and how did the Indian Railways finances become a controversial matter ?

In 2009 Mamta Banerjee presented a white paper in the parliament. It said

• Tthe cumulative cash surplus before dividend (2004-09) would have been just Rs. 62,363 crore instead of the previously claimed Rs. 88,669 crore, but for certain changes made in the accounting system.
• The Railways under the Lalu administration used to show depreciation, interest on deposits and lease charges as part of the surplus.
• In 2007-08, these the 3 heads (depreciation, interest on deposits and lease charges) accounted for around Rs. 8,400 crore of the Rs. 25,000 crore shown as surplus.
• The new administration led by Mamata Banerjee has since the reversed this approach.

There are significant doubts being shown on the availability of cash resources for projects such as DFC that need around Rs 4000 crore per anum.

A solution being suggested for the DFC project is that the Indian Railways dilute its equity in the project and make it a public-private partnership.

Forbes reports , “Railway insiders are not overly worried about the financial situation, though they do admit that it needs substantial government assistance to nudge large projects forward. The government had provided a gross budget support (GBS) of about Rs. 15,800 crore this fiscal… ministry had sought twice the amount for 2011-12“

This Railways budget will have to find out concrete solutions to the grave problems concerning Indian Railways.

Dedicated Freight Corridors

The Indian Railways in facing a financial crisis. Quite unlike the previous Indian Railways Minister Lalu Prasad yadav, who announced a surplus of Rs 25,000 crore (2008), this year things are going to be quite different.

Total revenues from passenger and freight this year for Indian Railways has been around Rs 92,000 crore. Forbes says that it could fall short by Rs 4000 crore.

The Indian Railways is struggling with the financial burden of the sixth pay commission amounting to Rs 55,000 crore along with  ther financial woes. The reasons for the massive depletion of finances of Indian Railways have been many, but major of them are as follows.

Causes of financial crunch

• Slow growth of freight business.
• Decrease in passenger traffic
• Increase in fuel prices (It has inflated its expenses by approximately Rs 1000 crore.
• Reduced investment by private freight carriers (They have hold up Rs 2000 crore since Railways is not allowing to carry them more freight. They were given licenses during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s tenure as the Railway Minister)
• Forbes says that this explains why the incremental freight loading target for 2010-11 is only 52 million tonnes compared to 60.3 million tonnes in 2009-10.Several other public-private projects including modernisation of railway stations have not taken off due to a paucity of funds.
• In 2007-08, the Indian Railways had a self generated fund balance of approximately Rs. 19,700 crore. This was wiped out due to the costs on salary and dividends to the government in the year 2009-2010.

The consequences of this financial crunch

• The Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project, is expected to cost around Rs. 77,000 crore. This includes the costs of borrowing and inflation.
• The DFC project is being banked on heavily to remove the congestion in the rail network and allow trains to move at the maximum 140 Kmph.
• The DFC project is important because a higher speed on both passenger and freight trains means that the railways has a competitive advantage over Airways and Roadways.
• The DFC project, which was announced in 2005 (set to complete in 2012) has not yet taken off due to land acquisition problems and alignment of railway lines.
• It was to connect the West (Mumbai) with the east (Kolkatta) including North (Delhi) with dedicated tracks.

Forbes reports that “just as the decks had been cleared for the Railways — after it made substantial progress in tying up funds from the World Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation — to start funding the project, it has become cash-strapped.“

ET reports, “To attract more resources, the railway minister is likely to set the pitch for public-private partnerships, or PPP, even though most of the schemes announced during this fiscal have not elicited much interest from corporates.”

When and how did the Indian Railways finances become a controversial matter ?

In 2009 Mamta Banerjee presented a white paper in the parliament. It said

• Tthe cumulative cash surplus before dividend (2004-09) would have been just Rs. 62,363 crore instead of the previously claimed Rs. 88,669 crore, but for certain changes made in the accounting system.
• The Railways under the Lalu administration used to show depreciation, interest on deposits and lease charges as part of the surplus.
• In 2007-08, these the 3 heads (depreciation, interest on deposits and lease charges) accounted for around Rs. 8,400 crore of the Rs. 25,000 crore shown as surplus.
• The new administration led by Mamata Banerjee has since the reversed this approach.

There are significant doubts being shown on the availability of cash resources for projects such as DFC that need around Rs 4000 crore per anum.

A solution being suggested for the DFC project is that the Indian Railways dilute its equity in the project and make it a public-private partnership.

Forbes reports , “Railway insiders are not overly worried about the financial situation, though they do admit that it needs substantial government assistance to nudge large projects forward. The government had provided a gross budget support (GBS) of about Rs. 15,800 crore this fiscal… ministry had sought twice the amount for 2011-12“

This Railways budget will have to find out concrete solutions to the grave problems concerning Indian Railways.