Date : 1.7.2016
A seperate Rail Budget must continue for the sake of transparency.
A seperate Rail Budget must continue for the sake of transparency.
On The Right Track
THE BUREAUCRACY, WHICH HAS MADE RAILWAYS THEIR OWN FIEF WITH ABSOLUTE FREEDOM FROM ACCOUNTABILITY, WILL NOT ALLOW ANY CHANGE IN STATUS QUO.
WRITTEN BY S PUSHPAVANAM |Updated: July 1, 2016 8:34 Am
A panel headed by Bibek Debroy, a member of Niti Aayog, has suggested that the practice of a separate railway budget be discarded. This remedy is worse than the disease.
The step is expected to help depoliticise the Railways. But Suresh Prabhu, the railway minister, is already refusing to announce new lines and new trains for political reasons and has introduced transparency in tendering. Next, it is argued that it would help the government to take decisions without losing track of commercial viability. If that is the intent, the Railways needs to tackle other issues.
For instance, the unions, entrenched in a corrupt relationship with bureaucrats, will never allow reducing the staff cost from the current 53 per cent of the revenue to at least 40 per cent when 10 to 20 per cent is the norm and commercial viability threshold in railways elsewhere. The bureaucracy, which has made Railways their own fief with absolute freedom from accountability, will not allow any change in status quo. In fact, they would try to expand the fief solely to serve their interests. As the Debroy report reveals, when nine zones became 17, efficiency only decreased.
Source : Indian Express
No comments:
Post a Comment