Earn goodwill, borrow money

The theatre may have changed from Bihar to the Capital, but for first time rail minister Laloo Yadav, the rail budget was yet another jan-sampark rally. While chorusing the theme song of his predecessors, Laloo added a special note of populism to his song by sparing a hike in freight and passenger fares while promising jobs galore. Speaking to newspersons who were eagerly waiting to hear the rail minister spell out some details behind his grandiose proposals Laloo said: â€œThis budget is for one and all. It is pro-rich, pro-poor, pro-middle-class, pro-industry and pro-business. I do not believe in hiking fares or freight as this has always been counter-productive to the growth of business.â€� Justifying his move to leave the fare and freight rates unchanged, he said that hiking of rates has only led to traffic moving from the rail sector to the roads. On being quizzed as to how he would then mobilise resources for his plans to increase availability of rakes or lines, Laloo said that he was assured by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister P Chidambaram that the required capital would be available. The budget support for the annual plan of the Railways remains at the interim budget level, however. Although, the minister appeared to be fumbling on numbers or details on his resource mobilisation scheme, (clarifying it with officials who stood behind him almost in attendance) he was clear on what the thrust of this budget is. In his characteristic style of reaching out to the masses, Laloo said: â€œAvailability of rakes and upgradation of rail lines to accommodate more trains is the focus area. Passengers are our true wealth but the earlier government has treated them as the sacrificial goat which has been bled over the years. We do not believe in this.â€� Promising to fill up vacancies Laloo said that Railways would soon go in for a recruitment binge. To start with it has been decided that that the unmanned crossings will be turned to manned level crossings by employing at least 19,000 people. â€œWe do not believe in cropping our work force and we are not inclined to continue with the VRS policy,â€� Laloo said.

Earn goodwill, borrow money

The theatre may have changed from Bihar to the Capital, but for first time rail minister Laloo Yadav, the rail budget was yet another jan-sampark rally.

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