It's a dream portfolio for India's politicians. And why not? The railway minister has at his command a budget of Rs 8,500 crore, a workforce of 16 lakh people, hundreds of contracts to award, and unending privileges to enjoy and please. Not for nothing did an unholy row erupt recently between Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and Samata Party's Nitish Kumar for the portfolio. Let's examine the track record of some of our past ministers:
Ram Vilas Paswan ('96-98): Ran up a record food bill (Rs 56 lakh in a year) for people who feasted on his account. Also distributed the maximum number of free passes (about 50,000), largely to people from his constituency, Hajipur.
Suresh Kalmadi ('95-96): Managed to make a name for himself despite being a minster of state, in just nine months,in terms of distributing free passes, announcing complimentary passes for ex-MPs with companions and privileges for sportsmen and ex-servicemen. The orders came before the Rao government finished its term, in time for the next polls.
C.K. Jaffer Sharief ('91-95): Man behind the abb locomotive controversy, who allegedly favoured the Swedish giant over Japanese Hitachi for a Rs 20-crore payback. Other achievements: building an unusually long road bridge over a railway crossing in Bangalore, reportedly to clear way to his farmhouse, and awarding an import contract to son-in-law's company, abv Loco. His ultimate populist profligacy, the uni-gauge project (92-96) that sought to convert the uneconomical metregauge lines to broadgauge and put hometown Hasan on the rail network, bled the railways dry through an outlay of over Rs 11,000 crore. Sharief went ahead despite protests from the Railway Board. The experiment continues to burn a hole in the exchequer.
Of late, political instability has also hit the railways. The period 1996-99 has seen the maximum number of surveys (247) and new projects (worth Rs 10,189 crore) merely on political considerations. Nitish Kumar has already commissioned 98 surveys. Over 1988-98, surveys, which are useful to divert attention from an undelivered project, have eaten up a precious Rs 30 crore.
