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Railways status paper to be presented in Parliament

The Railway Board will soon bring out a complete status paper on the condition of the Indian Railways and present it before Parliament on the opening day of the next session.

Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said the paper would suggest improvements and steps to be taken for more transparency in the working of the Railways.

Speaking to the press after flagging off the 2,500th electric locomotive Swarna Ava, built by the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, he said although the paper essentially aimed to improve the sagging image of the Indian Railways, in terms of safety, security and punctuality, efforts would be made to highlight even minor problems faced by millions of railway commuters.

''We will not stop only at placing the status paper before members of Parliament but also suggest holding several national-level discussions to improve the system and try to bring in on a par with the best in the world,'' Kumar said.

Discussing the recruitment fraud unearthed recently in the railway service, Kumar promised to deal sternly with the situation. He said a blanket ban on recruitment was being considered for the time being.

The minister said he said replaced the chiefs of all the 19 Railway Recruitment Boards by very senior railway officers with impeccable service records. Changes had also been brought about in the examination system to plug all loopholes in it.

To weed out corruption an "internal vigilance maintenance" system had been introduced for the Railway Protection Force.

"Both as a common man and as a member of Parliament I have witnessed corruption at all levels and now will try to root them out at the earliest," the minister said.

Improvement of punctuality, safety and cleanliness in the railway network were his priorities, Kumar said and regretted that severe resource crunch and lack of adequate cash flow had become the main stumbling blocks in improving the situation.

He said he was going over the issue of improving the railway network, one region at a time, beginning with the backward areas, despite the paucity of resources.

Stating that the eastern and north-eastern regions were the two most neglected zones of the country in terms of railway network, the minister said several new trains would soon be introduced connecting these regions with other parts of the country.

About the promise he had made to Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee for the introduction of a superfast train between Cooch Behar and Sealdah (Calcutta), the railway minister said a new train, the North Bengal Express, would soon be introduced.

Kumar said steps were also being taken to improve the condition of tracks in all parts of the country and plans were afoot for electrification of more lines and spreading the railway network to far-flung areas.

UNI