Rail Budget: Mamata too favours home state

New Delhi: Mamata Banerjee inviting comparison with her predecessor Lalu Prasad after presentation of rail budget was perhaps only to be expected. While Mamata too has followed the principle of political exigency, just like Lalu, in framing the budget, it’s what they have done in their respective home state which probably deserves special attention.

To give an example, of the 18 new trains announced for Bihar by Lalu in the February interim budget, 14 have been scrapped by Mamata. Of the 57 trains announced on Friday, a mere 4 are for Bihar.

That’s not all. Mamata cancelled 3 projects announced by Lalu expansion of lines in Bihar, while giving just one of 55 new lines she announced in the budget.

Mamata’s decision would perhaps have seemed discriminatory to many had it not been for Bihar benefiting immensely in the past 10 years only because some of the most powerful rail ministers were from the state.

Not just Lalu, but also Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan went out of their way in doling out railways largesse to the state only to further their electoral prospects. Railways in a way became the proverbial carrot which these leaders dangled in the state to outdo each other. Sadly for Bihar, this will ensure that no tears are shed for the state when it has been, as some would say, cruelly cast aside only because it has no place in Mamata’s overall scheme of things.

In fact, to many Mamata’s partiality may represent only a reversal of fortunes. For, under NDA, she had failed to prevent Nitish Kumar from effecting a bifurcation of the Kolkata-based Eastern Railway to hive off East Central Railway which was located in Hajipur.

However, the most glaring example of railways remaining hostage to political leanings is perhaps the way funds have been allotted to projects in Bihar, which could have resulted equally from political decision, announced by the previous railway minister. Lalu had sanctioned many new line projects in the state and earmarked hundreds of crore for each of them. For several of these, Mamata has allocated Rs 1 lakh in the budget effectively putting them in the cold storage, if not killing them completely.

To cite an example, Lalu had sanctioned a new line from Sitamarhi to Nirmali in Bihar, a 188 km stretch which cost Rs 678 crore. Even though it might sound unbelievable to many, Mamata has allocated Rs 1 lakh for it. Similarly, the 67 km Muzaffarpur-Janakpur line stretching right up to Nepal, which was to cost Rs 228 crore, too would get Rs 1 lakh. Even the extremely crucial Kosi bridge which would cost Rs 341 crore has been allocated only Rs 20 crore which may not be enough to sustain it. The important Chapra-Muzaffarpur 85 kmline too has received only 2 crore when the overall requirement is 378 crore.

Patna was in the list of railway stations which Lalu wanted to develop, but it find no mention in the list of 50 stations named by Mamata for developing them as world class stations. Gaya is the only Bihar station to feature in the list. On the contrary, of the 309 stations to be developed as adarsh stations, close to 200 are in West Bengal and Orissa.

Mamata also announced that 17 medical colleges and 7 nursing colleges would be opened on railway land, but none of them will be in Bihar. West Bengal gets 4 of these medical colleges. There is also no train for Bihar in the Turonto or non stop trains, 12 of which were announced by Mamata. Mamata’s decision to make railways take over Basumati Sahitya Mandir, a cultural undertaking of the West Bengal
government, is also being cited by Bihar leaders as a proof of her Bengal “bias”.