Tuesday, February 26, 2008

wooing

another populist i-am-your-messiah railway budget by laloo. reducing fares, giving coolies govt employee status, and declaring a 250 billion profit. there are doubts already on how the profit figure had been calculated and whether its a bluff. though the coolies sure are dancing. and yeah the promise to convert four main railway stations to compare with international standards! this is his fifth hare out of the hat. i have just a very basic question. in the last 4 years what did he do to improve safety, cleanliness and conveniences, and punctuality in the railways? its great to have people happy about reduced fares and great to make promises about 'green toilets' and escalators and smart cards; at the same time have even your opponents enjoying themselves as he claims in his 'international' english that he has revolutionised indian railways and is appreciated all over for that. apart from what he shows on paper to have changed the railways from a loss making department to a rollicking earner (which many credit to his enterprising subordiantes and not the man himself), i dont see much either on the stations or in the trains. i would appreciate changes evident to my eyes than a budget that sounds rosy to the ears.
prannoy roy asked him a question: if he was a better CM or RM? what i have to say to that is when he is an RM its a department at his mercy, not people's lives like when he was the CM. in a department at max he can gain popularity for another election to fill his pockets again , in the state he ruled like a demon and slaughtered lives to prosper.

2 comments:

k said...

vikram's father works for the railways, and there is some credit to the railway department.

I think traveling has been made better, I mean ticketing has gone online after all. That is a huge thing. It used to take 3-4 hours to buy a ticket; now - if the website isn't down - this takes 10 minutes.

Of course our train stations and trains are terrible when it comes to higene.

colours said...

didnt online ticketing happen much before laloo came in? and i'm not saying the department doesnt deserve any credit. on the contrary i'm saying that if they are making profits its all thanks to the department and that laloo alone hasn't done any magic the way he keeps claiming in the parilament. in fact people say his subordinates are very enterprising people in the department and they are the ones actually responsible for the efficiency improvement in costs.
(even i'll forget to spell hygiene if i see this long enough)