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Railways will use land to diversify and commercialise new facilities
50 pc jobs for locals: Mamata
New Delhi:
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday strongly advocated 50 per cent quota for sons-of-the-soil in railway jobs.
Firm on her refrain that “expectations are high” (from her), she favoured question papers for recruitment to railway job to be set in regional languages. Pointing to past demands from states, she promised that Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) procedures would be refashioned.
Replying to discussions on the Railway Budget, which was passed on Thursday by the Lok Sabha, Mamata announced that she would issue a “White Paper” on the performance of the ministry during the last five years. The Minister said Railways would also prepare a “vision document” outlining the ministry’s roadmap.
Briefly intervening in the debate, BJP leader Ananth Kumar asked whether she would table the “White Paper” on the first day of the winter session. To this Mamata said: “ You were in the government. There are procedures. I don’t have internal audit”.
White Paper
“The White Paper with the vision document will be very colourful. Everything will be colourful. Give me some time”, she quipped, amidst peals of laughter. Her immediate predecessor Lalu Prasad looked on poker-faced. Mamata put her ministry’s surplus at Rs 8,368 crore while Lalu maintained that the surplus was to the tune of Rs 22,000 crore when he was minister.
Pointing out that state and regional expectations were very high, Mamata said RRB would provide jobs to local and regional youths, adding that jobs for locals would help Railways in terms of “language and understanding”.
Announcing that ‘duranto’ trains would start from two places within a month, Mamata said her ministry will introduce ‘Janata Khana’ which would not be outsourced. Currently only ‘burgers’ were available at stations which itself “is not bad as children like it”, she hastened to add.
Reiterating her budget speech claim that world-class railway stations will be developed on public-private partnership (PPP) basis, Mamata said global tenders would be floated for this purpose. She, however, made it clear that Railways would not sell its land but lease it out.
She informed that 3 lakh acre of Railways land could be used for creating more facilities.
In this context, referring to BJP Rajya Sabha MP Arun Jaitley’s criticism that Railways should concentrate on its “core area”, Mamata said her ministry was running schools, colleges and hospitals and it may create more such establishments to help its employees and the general public. “Railways would provide land and go for PPP for starting new ventures. I am supposed to have IIT. What is wrong in it ?” she shot back at Jaitley. CII and FICCI would be consulted to widen the Railways’ business plans, Mamata said, adding that an experts committee, to be headed by Padmashree awardee Amit Mitra, would study the areas her ministry could expand.
A visibly buoyant Mamata wondered why the Railways should not be doing the job of laying fibre optic cables. She said technocrat Sam Pitroda would advise the Railways on the issue. She, however, clarified that the Railways would not be corporatised. She said basic amenities at 7,000 railway stations would be supervised by a senior Railways official and security and travel safety on trains would be improved. At the same time, new stations and coaches would have senior citizen and handicapped-friendly features that would enable users to move in and out of stations without difficulty.
Indicating that she had bigger plans for her ministry, Mamata said she was firm on introducing double-decker trains, a cell that would monitor train punctuality and 50 per cent ticket fare concession for winners of President’s police medal and artists on Rajdhani and Shatabdi express trains.
This is a very welcome approach. This should have been long done. In a huge country like India with many large states, if such a policy is not implemented, some people will get accumulated in several states depriving the locals of a legitimate work opportunity. I am surprised (pleasantly) with this pragmatic idea of Mamatha.
Good work by Muniyappa in convincing Mamata about this sensible move. Lalu exploited Railways and reduced it into employment agency for Biharis - with all india exams being conducted in Hindi, a luxury not available to indians outside BIMARU belt.
Hope this will be implemented soon. We need to end Hindi imperialism, RRB jobs are menial and doesn´t call for great skills. Now hopefully non-Hindis no longer need Hindi to buy Railway tickets.
