The Railway Budget was passed by the Lok Sabha with Minister Mamata Banerjee announcing a slew of measures to tone up the functioning of the Railways in terms of amenities and safety and deciding to set up an expert committee to prepare a blueprint for future. Replying to a marathon discussion on the Budget,she said two more non-stop 'Duranto' (fast) trains -Delhi-Secunderabad and Delhi-Nagpur- would be introduced in addition to 12 such trains already announced. Two of the 14 such trains would start within a month,she said but did not identify them. Catering to regional sentiments which have often erupted in the form of violence in recent times,she favoured 50 per cent quota for locals in induction in Railways through the Railway Recruitment Board and question paper in regional language as she promised to review the process of intake. She also included several more stations in the list of those to be developed as 'adarsh' (model) and world class ones,responding to demands by members from all parties,who accused her of only focussing on West Bengal while neglecting rest of the country. The Budget was passed by voice vote after suspension of a rule which provides for referring of Demand for Grants and Appropriation Bills to the Standing Committees. Banerjee announced setting up an expert panel,headed by FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra to prepare a business plan for toning up the Railways. It will have representatives of Chambers of Commerce besides Member (Traffic) and Member (Engineering) of the Railway Board. She said monitoring committees,headed by senior officials like members of Railway Board,would also be set up to keep tabs on train punctuality,amenities and cleanliness. Emphasising that realisation of these objectives was not an impossible task,she said efforts would be made to attain punctuality of trains up to 90 per cent. Declaring that all the commitments made in Budget would be implemented within this year,Banerjee said the White Paper promised by her would be unveiled as soon as possible. She clarified that the exercise was not to target "any individual" but only to reflect upon the past and present state of affairs of the Railways and chalking out the roadmap for future. Her promise to bring out the White Paper had upset her predecessor Lalu Prasad and given a handle to the opposition to attack the RJD chief. Banerjee said her step was nothing unusual as such an exercise was carried out earlier by her predecessors George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar. She,however,did not give any time-frame despite BJP leader Ananth Kumar insisting that it be unveiled on the first day of the Winter Session. She said the timing would depend on internal and external audits.
