The Railway Budget was passed on Thursday by voice vote in the Lok Sabha with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee announcing the formation of an expert committee under FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra to prepare a business improvement plan for the organisation. The Budget was passed by voice vote after suspension of a rule providing for referring of demands for grants and appropriation bills to standing committees.

Banerjee announced the addition of two trains — Delhi-Secunderabad and Delhi-Nagpur — to the 12 non-stop Duranto trains already announced. She said that two of these would start plying this month itself.

Citing instances of violence over recruitment of outsiders, she threw her weight behind a 50 per cent quota for locals in the Railway Recruitment Board selections. Declaring that the recruitment process would be looked at afresh, she said that she favoured the use of local languages in Railway recruitment exam questions papers.

Banerjee said that while she was against the eviction of the poor already settled on Railway lands, she would ensure there was no further encroachment. While ruling out corporatisation of the Railways, she said the Railways would go in for a healthy blend of the public and private sector practices. She said that the Railways would lease out three lakh acres of land to generate funds and set up medical colleges where 50 per cent of the seats would be reserved for the wards of the 14 lakh Rail employees while the remaining would be open to the public.

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