Rail Budget 2015-16

Keeping passenger fares unchanged, Minister Suresh Prabhu presented his maiden budget for Indian Railways Thursday, promising to balance passenger needs and long-term interests of the organisation to benchmark it globally on quality, safety and reach.

Nine more high-speed trains, faster speed of existing trains, Wi-Fi in 400 stations, user-friendly ladders to mount upper berths, easier norms for unreserved tickets, 17,000 bio-toilets in trains, better connectivity in north-east, and cameras for safety of women travellers are among the other highlights of the budget.

"There will be no hike in passenger fares. We will focus on improving passenger amenities, including cleanliness," Railway Minister Prabhu said in a 66-minute speech in the Lok Sabha, watched keenly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had handpicked him for the job. He made no mention of any revision in freight tariff, as has been the norm in the past.

The minister also promised all this with a vastly improved operating ratio, which spells out how much money is spent on day-to-day operations to earn revenues -- an indication of the funds left for safety and expansion.

He targeted to bring this down to 88.5 percent, or the lowest in nine years, from an unsustainable level of 93.6 percent in 2013-14 and 91.8 percent for this fiscal. This is better than what the prime minister had asked the railways a few days ago. Globally, a 75-80 percent or lower is seen as a healthy benchmark.

Prabhu also seemed to have ruled out the sale of surplus land and other assets of Indian Railways. "We will monetize our resources than sell them for finances," he said, adding: "Business as usual of asking for budgetary support from finance ministry is neither sustainable nor necessary."

The minister began with what ails Indian Railways. "Facilities have not improved substantially for the past few decades which is the result of under-investment that affects capacity, leading to poor morale. This fed into vicious cycle of chronic under-investment for a long time."

Emphasizing that safety, quality of service, standards and efficiency all suffered due to poor financial resources available with the Indian Railways in recent decades, the minister said adding all this further fed into the cycle of poor investment.

"This must be put to an end," said the chartered accountant-turned-politician, while presenting the budget for one of the largest railway network in the world. "We have to make our Indian Railways a benchmark organisation in safety, security and infrastructure," he said in a speech peppered with several Hindi couplets.

Playing with words, he invoked God (Prabhu) and said: "One of the first things I asked, 'hey prabhu' how will all this be possible." Then, he went on to say that he took it upon the mortal 'Prabhu' to accomplish the task ahead.

Earlier the minister presented a white paper on Indian Railways, which he said will form a trilogy of what plans he had in mind for one of the largest such networks in the world along with his budget for 2015-16 and a Vision 2030 document to be presented later in the year.

He also set four goals to transform Indian Railways: Improved customer experience, safer travel, modern infrastructure and financial self-sustainability. "We will also create a separate department for taking care of cleanliness."

For the record, India boasts one of the oldest and the largest railroad networks in the world, ferrying some 23 million people, or a population the size of Australia, as also 2.65 million tonnes of goods on its coaches, each day.

It serves from 7,172 stations via 12,617 passenger and 7,421 freight trains on a track network spanning Baramulla in the Himalayan foothills of Kashmir to the southern tip of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, and from Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh to the port town of Okha in Gujarat.

Rita’s Stories: 

The story is based upon the conversation with Mr. Hariram 

Hariram - Uttar Pradesh 

My name is Hariram. I belong to Village Devaria (Uttar Pradesh). I was a farmer and had some Buffalo and cows. My father was a regular heavy drinker. We had no extra income so it was difficult to bear the expenses of the family. Hence, I decided to leave the village and came to Delhi. But here in Delhi I became a labour with no regular job. So, whatever I earned was not enough to meet my expenses. Often my father also came to Delhi and asked for money, but I could not pay to him and I had to bear his anger abuses too.

I was too much worried. What to do? How to search regular and permanent job so that I can earn more money? One day I went to lose myself at nearby Pahari. I was so fed up that I could not resist and started weeping. Suddenly about 10 boys came to me after hearing my voice. One of them asked me had somebody beaten me or had snatched money from me. I explained them that nobody had beaten me but the problem was that I had no money and a regular job. They solaced me. The leader told me that don’t worry, join us. He also offered work and assured more money. I nodded in affirmative and thanked them for their valuable help.

They took me along with them and told that now we were eleven, we will work together and distribute the earnings amongst themselves. They then told me their job. Actually they were a gang of Rahjani (snatchers) and had been looting money from the persons who used to pass through this lonely jungle pagdandi (pathway). After knowing this, I was in two minds, but finally I decided to join this gang, now we became eleven.

The gang of eleven:

The Gang of eleven launched its plan. Six members were divided into three groups of 2 each and they hided themselves at various points of Pahari. Five members used the trees for hiding themselves. The target dates were 5^th to 7^th of each month. These dates were wages payment days in nearby factories, called company. Our two members used to accompany the target and their work was to ensure him that they too were labourers and had money. After convincing the target for safe passage, these members’ duty was to bring him to the pagdandi on the plea of short route. The rest of the work was completed by the members at Pahari who used to snatch his money and after beating, ordered him to run away. Two of our members’ duty started then. They followed him to his residence to ensure that he was not a relative of the landlords of the colony. It was necessary because house owners might have joined for action against them. Thus, this foolproof plan continued for a long period. The looted money was distributed amongst all the eleven members.

Thus I started earning lot of money. I gave throusands of rupees to my father. My father didn’t ask from where and how this came. He was now fully satisfied and told me that I was not interested to work earlier and now learned how to earn money. He encouraged me to continue this work. I told my father, “You have not asked how I have earned the money”. My father angrily replied, “I don’t want to know how you earn, whether you become a thief or cut the throat of any body, I want money”. My fellow gangsters were very happy after hearing the comments of my father.

As per our routine, every day we reached the Pahari points at 4.00 p.m. and stayed there till 12.00 midnight in search of soft targets. The people often used this short cut and were our targets. Sometimes it was small cash, but due to our precautions, the show was continued for many months.

Once we were empty hands for the last many days and this restlessness forced us to forget the rules we framed ourselves. One day it was dark and we decided to attack anybody who came through this pagdandi. We saw a person coming on cycle and our members jumped over him I too jumped in front of his cycle. The other members looted the entire cash he had in his pockets. First time we didn’t follow the person to his destination and distributed the money as usual. This vital mistake created a net for me.

When I reached my residence, the great trouble was waiting for me. The victim was the son of my landlord. I never saw him but he had recognized me and handed over me to the local police. But my college got me out of police station by paying some handsome amount to them. The local police asked me to contact them if there was any problem in future.

After coming out of the police station I felt myself as lion. I vacated that room. No landlord in the area gave us room. Hence, we constructed juggies with plastic sheet at Pahari with the connivance of local police and started living there. For livelihood, we purchased some buffalos. We started our business of selling milk in other areas. We were earning enough and people thought that it is some Gujjar’s Tabela. Now we had fixed and regular income. We all constructed eleven small houses and expanded the business too along with our old business of looting with expanded area.

Now my father is very much happy. I sent more money to get my brothers educated. My father also searched a girl for me and after marriage I brought my wife to Delhi. In a very short time my wife had suspicion. She asked me why I never stayed with her during night. I tried to convince that I had night duty in the company. But she had made up her mind that I had one more wife at some other house. I too, was not in a position to show her my company, as there was none. She declared leave this job or the wife. I tried to pacify but she persisted that if I had no time for her in the night, she was not interested to live with me. One day she left me alone and went to her parents place.

My wife left me alone. For few days I was very upset. But after few days I met with a girl. We both started living together as live-in partners. But within months she became pregnant and started forcing me to marry her. I could not do so as my wife filed a case against me. Her father was a well connected person in his area and he started harassing my family in the village and once he came to Delhi also with police and threatened me. My live-in partner was from Haryana and her parents were also searching me. I was hiding in the jungle.  My wife also filed a case against me.

Once we looted a labourer and I went to have dinner. When I was returning to my hiding place in the jungle, I saw a dead body. I enquired and came to know that it was of a young boy of 20 years. This boy was seriously ill and could not be treated. I looked at his father. He was the same labourer whom we looted in the evening. I understood why he could not afford his son’s treatment. The money he was bringing for treatment was looted by our gang.  The mother of the boy was also handicapped. The fact was that I was the killer of that boy.

I felt guilty for being a murderer. Actually I killed the family. The boy was the only one who could look after them. How the parents will survive at the old age? They had no other source of income. Because I was hiding in the jungle, I found a way to keep my money. I had chosen a place, dig it and covered with a stone. Thus I saved Rs. 20,000/= there. Now I wanted to help the family. When I came back after seeing the boy’s dead body, I removed the stone to take the money. Oh! There was nothing. Somebody had stolen my savings. It was another shock for me.

However, I went to solace the man whom we looted. I saw the condition of his room. There was nothing to feed them. The man recognized me, he did not say anything. When I intended to help him, he was reluctant to accept the looted money. Then I asked how I could help him. Then he requested to help him by getting a ration card. With little efforts I was able to get a ration card for them.

A small contribution from a killer:

In the night, when I was lying at my hiding place, the inner soul asked many questions. Was I happy with my karmas? What I intended to do next? Whatever I saved was also looted. Whatever I invested in the village, the house and small land was part of litigation and my wife wanted to snatch from me. Brothers, whom I helped in getting education, also wanted their share. What I got in my life? Ultimately I decided my next act and slept.

I reached my village saw the situation there and did my last bad work. My father was keeping the cash at home, which I sent to him. I made a plan and successfully stolen that money and came back to Delhi. Here I started a new innings of my life with the sole aim of helping poor people in my area.

I settled in Harkesh Nagar here in Delhi. I became a ration dealer and started helping poor people. I started with helping people to get ration cards. With my good intention, people started coming to me for various type of work and I too helped them. These poor people forgot my past and started appreciating my efforts. I became a popular social worker in my area.

Now I looked at my personal life, the family life. How to tackle the case which my in-laws filed against me. I contacted a person in my wife’s village and explained my problem. After some continuous meeting, the man agreed to help me. He contacted my wife and did she want to re-marry. She was quite reluctant to do that. She actually wanted her husband back. My contact assured her to pacify between them.

Once my wife’s parents decided to on pilgrimage for two weeks. My contact was their next door neighbor. I reached there. My wife was informed about my presence. She agreed to meet me at her house. After her parents went for pilgrimage, I went to meet her secretly through the roof. It continued for 14 days. We were husband-wife again. We both kept it secret for months.

She became pregnant:  

She informed me about her pregnancy. I filed a case against my in-laws. The notice was served to them and they appeared with my wife. In the court my plea was that how she became pregnant when I was not living with her. In the court my wife’s statement was recorded. She clearly told the court that she wanted to go with her husband and was not interested in any litigation. I too accepted her request. The case was over. I got my wife back. I took her to Delhi with me. Here we started a new life, forgetting the past. We were a happy family.

Today I am the happiest person on earth. I have three sons and a daughter. All are being provided good education. I am still a ration dealer. I have one house in Harkesh Nagar and one at Faridabad. I still help poor people in their day to day life. I am a religious person and often join satsang and other religious get-to-gather.

I advise people that money is not everything. Don’t run after money. Do your works honestly, earn good money and help others especially poor. Their blessings will bring fruits in your daily life. You too, will feel more satisfied. 

By: Rita Kumari