Railway Budget 2011-12

The Railway Budget for 2011-12 presented by Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee for the next year is different in several aspects from the earlier budgets. Mamata, perhaps, set a record for her love for Bengal. Undoubtedly, former railway ministers also had paid greater attention to their respected states and constituencies. Prior to Mamata Bannerjee, Railway Ministers including Lalu Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar, Madhav Rao Scindia and others, had been gifting new trains to their states and constituencies. In this light, Mamata has done nothing wrong if she follows her predecessors.

Still, Mamata's her love for Bengal appears to have burdened her mind heavily. Perhaps, it is because the state assembly elections are due there shortly. Mamata appears to have prepared herself to uproot the decades old communist government in West Bengal and become the chief minister. The things have come to such a pass that she is being accused of carrying out work relating to her ministry from Kolkata. Under the circumstances, if Mamata has showered her love on railway passengers in West Bengal, it is not a surprise and is on expected lines.

Railways Income
Like all the previous rail budgets of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), there has been no increase in passenger fare this budget, too. While presenting the budget, Mamata claimed that the railways income would surpass all previous ones. As far as her proposals for West Bengal, are concerned, she has proposed to introduce fifty more local trains for Kolkata alone. Going by her proposal, Kolkata would enjoy the pride of having the largest number of local trains. In addition to these fifty local trains, she also proposed to make Kolkata the 17th zone for Metro rail, and expand its sphere of activity.

Mamata has further proposed to set up a coach factory in Kolkata. She has also promised to set up a similar coach factory at Singur. It may be noted that it is the very same Singur where Tata had proposed to set up his Nano small car factory. Mamata had, then turned it as an issue against the Communist government and had forced the Tata group to pack up from there. To make good the loss the people of Singur have suffered, she now announced to set up a coach factory there.

In addition, she also proposed to set up industrial parks at Bongaiguon (in Assam) and Nandigram (in West Bengal), a software center at Darjeeling and a track machine industry at Uluberia (West Bengal). A lion's share of the twenty hundred thousand new jobs, she has announced to create in her budget, would naturally go to West Bengal. Sixteen other trains would also pass through West Bengal. She has also announced to introduce new train service in the name of Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore who happened to be from Bengal. She even included Bangladesh in her love for Bengal, when she announced a train up to Bangladesh. To give a fillip to the development activity in the Naxal (Maoist guerillas) infested areas, she announced to expand the rail network in these areas.

Attention to Vulnerable Sections
Despite her love for Bengal, Mamata has also paid attention to the vulnerable sections of the society in other parts of the country, the weaker sections, women folk, physically handicapped, former servicemen and their families, students and journalists and proposed numerous concessions for them. At the same time, she presented an attractive blue print to carry the railways forward. But, she is also accused of creating history by bringing the railways to the verge of bankruptcy.

Reportedly, the railways suffered a huge loss of Rs 250 billion because of her love of West Bengal. Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sita Ram Yechuri maintained that during the last 81 days, railways released 79 advertisements in West Bengal. These and her other such activities are causing loss to the railways.

In a nutshell, notwithstanding her several announcements for the rest of the country, if these proposals and announcements are compared with those for West Bengal, the balance would, naturally tilt in favor of West Bengal.

Left Parties Opposition To Nuclear Liability Bill Benefiting US

Left parties, which made an unsuccessful attempt to topple the government with the aim to stop the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, have appealed to all parties opposing the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill to get united. Left parties have said that the government is in a hurry to bring this bill in an attempt to provide relief to US nuclear companies. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Forward Bloc, and Revolutionary Socialist Party said that the government is taking this step under US pressure, and all parties would jointly oppose the same.

123 Agreement With United States
The Left Front had expressed the resolve to stop the 123 Agreement with the United States until the last moment. CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat has continuously declared to use every political avenue for the purposes. In this situation, Karat has once again intensified the campaign to oppose the nuclear liability bill, which is considered an important stage before clinching the nuclear deal.

When Karat started counting his objections to the nuclear liability bill in the Left Front's press meet organized at the CPI-M headquarters, his intention was to prove the bill as anti-national, so that parties supporting it become uneasy.

Endangering People's Lives and Property
Karat said the government is in a hurry to bring this bill so that US companies supplying nuclear reactors do not suffer any financial burden in the event of a nuclear accident, as this burden would fall upon Indian taxpayers. Karat accused that the government was trying to give concessions to US companies in this clandestine manner, putting the burden on government exchequer. At the same time, CPI-M leader Karat and CPI leader A.B. Bardhan accused the government of trying to bring this kind of bill, endangering the lives and property of citizens of the country.

It is certainly shocking that the government is trying to bring in a legislation that absolves foreign reactor companies from the liability of compensation, but puts the burden on the government. This means that this bill puts the burden on the taxpayers' pockets.

Ignoring People's Interests
Finding fault with the bill, Prakash Karat also said that the provision for compensation in the bill is only for accident caused deliberately or due to carelessness. If an accident occurs because of manufacturing problem, there is no provision for any compensation in the bill. Karat said that it became clear from this that the government was keen on this bill to encourage private nuclear energy plants and to provide benefit to US suppliers, ignoring people's interests.

Karat said the government should send a delegation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki so that it came to know that even after six decades, how people were still suffering today. The government might understand something by looking at the condition of a sizable population of Japan suffering from genetic problems due to nuclear radiation.

Mixed Reaction
This bill is unholy, said Prakash Karat taking a dig at the Congress, which called the coming together of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Left parties against the bill as an unholy alliance. When asked about this Congress party allegation, Karat said that first this bill is unholy. This question was raised over his appeal to all parties to come together against the bill.

Otherwise also, during the Parliamentary budge session, the Left parties appear to be standing alongside the BJP on several important issues. The BJP and Left parties were together in support of the Women's Reservation Bill, and they also appear to be standing together against price rise. Now, the Left parties and BJP have joined their voices in opposing the nuclear liability bill.

Widespread Maoist Movement in India

After the Naxal (Maoist guerillas) firing on a police patrol party in Chhattisgarh, murder of 17 people in Amose Bhiron village of Bihar, massacre of 19 policemen in Maharashtra, and killing of a police inspector Francis Induwar in Jharkhand, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Naxals cannot be called militants and the possibility of use of military against them is also ruled out. Earlier, he also said that the government would not bow before Naxals.
The government will not remain a mute spectator toward activities such as extraction of money, looting, snatching, and violence by Naxals. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram also commented, "Until the Naxals lay down their weapons, talks cannot be held with them."
The statements of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister fell on deaf ears of Naxals. On the contrary, they gave a call for closure in Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
During the shutdown, the Naxals blew up railway tracks in Jhrandi area of Dhanbad, burned three trucks in Giridiah and damaged a bridge by triggering explosions. A telecommunication tower of a private company was set on fire in Burky Salia village of Bihar.
In West Bengal, a worker of an anti-Maoist committee was murdered. Two officials of the Punjab government and the Punjab State Electricity Board were killed at Amarapura in Pukur district of Bihar.
Naxal activities continued for the second day in Bihar and Jharkhand. They ransacked the railway station at Bansipur, set ablaze the divisional office of Sangrampur, and blew up a building of a school in Chatra village of Jharkhand. A polling booth was targeted at Garhchiroli in Maharashtra. It is astonishing that the prime minister is speaking in term of not using military against Naxals, saying that they are not militants.

Aim of Naxals
The aim of Naxals is to grab power through the barrel of a gun in accordance with Maoism. Hence, it is futile to hope that they would join the mainstream of the country's democratic order.
Distressed over the turmoil triggered by Naxals, the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led West Bengal government is also appealing to the union government to wipe out Naxalism. It is worth mentioning that Maoism also influences the West Bengal government. It was owing to this inclination toward Maoism that the Communist Party of India was divided a few years ago.

Gravity of Situation
After the capture of Lalgarh, etc. in West Bengal by Naxals, at the instance of the Bengal government, the central government rushed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel there and freed Lalgarh. Viewing the gravity of the situation, Chief Minister Budhadev Bhattacharya called on the prime minister and the home minister recently to start a joint campaign for the elimination of Naxals. They suggested that an identical drive should be launched in neighboring Jharkhand state because Naxals fled to another state easily after carrying out an incident in one state.
In response to the appeal of Chief Minister Budhadev Bhattacharya, the Union Government agreed to deploy 17 companies in West Bengal. All this manifests the gravity of the situation and that it is beyond the capacity of state governments and their police to deal with Naxals. He has suggested that a similar drive should be initiated in the neighboring Jharkhand state. That is why Naxal-affected state governments are asking for deployment of more security forces to combat Naxal violence.
Notwithstanding the deployment of the central security forces, the conditions there are not being brought under control because the CRPF has also its own limitations. The position of the police is such that its strength is not in proportionate with the rising population. It is, therefore, better to press the military into service in order to wipe out Naxals.

Eliminating Militancy
In Punjab, militancy was eliminated by deployment of military when terrorism was at its peak there. It was owing to the complacency of the government that forest smuggler of the South, Veerappan, could not be arrested for a long time. The image of India continues to be that of a "soft state," and China and Pakistan are exploiting our softness.
While the government persists with its policy of not using military against Naxals and offering to hold talks with them, they continue to intensify their activity and extend their area of influence. Although the government is using only the CRPF to counter Naxals, yet eventually it will need to press the military into action to wipe out Naxalism (Maoist movement) that is posing more and more threat to India's internal security.