MAMATA BANERJEE EXPOSED: STATUS PAPER TO BE ISSUED

Mamata Banerjee Exposed of Railways Unrealistic and Visionless Projects for West Bengal. At least ten major projects out of a plethora of projects announced by the railways during Mamata's regime are either unworkable or purposeless. The projects seem to be devoid of financial prudence and lacked vision. They play negative role for the railways' economy too. The point in question, for example, is a Diesel Multiple Unit factory in Haldia, West Bengal, which is not a coach factory but simply a fixing of wheels unit to the already constructed rakes at Chennai. The rakes are to be transported from Chennai and wheeled in at Haldia. What an idiotic scheme it seems to be? According to an expert's view it will not only take away a part of existing job from Chennai factory but also add to the expenditure by 800 Km of transporting the rakes for wheeling in. Apart from this, the wheeling process requires technical knowledge and hence the projection of employment benefit for the local population is false. There are other such unrealistic projects which are unworkable or escalate cost unnecessarily. The money to such projects as sanctioned was lying unutilized with the zonal railway. The detailed exposure of projects would be made when the railway brings out a status paper on it soon. The stage is set to show how allocation of railways finances have been skewed distributed without any prudence, desirability and feasibility of projects with Mamata Banerjee keeping the lion’s share. With 92 projects in hand, 17 major projects were kept by Trinamool trio (Mamata-Dinesh-Mukul) to promote their party’s prospects in West Bengal. This trio has been adding on the new projects according to their whims. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the minister of state for Railways has now decided to write a new CV of Mamata Banerjee indicating the lapses which have been found in sanctioning these projects. Most of the projects are just paper work to befool the people of West Bengal. These projects are conjured out of thin air with no roadmap on whether the railways needed them at all. Previously known as Mamata’s baiter, Mr. Chowdhury was instrumental in bringing Ms. Banerjee to UPA fold and provided her a politically exalted status. However, he now feels deceived by her in distributing the railway projects. According to Adhir Ranjan, the forth coming staus paper will reveal that much of the money allocated to the state of West Bengal – at least half of it – could not be spent till date because either the state government was unable to ensure land acquisition or zonal railways concerned were stretched thin beyond capacity. There are plenty of such instances where the money send for the projects could not be utilized more than 15 percent due to imperfect or flawed projects given to West Bengal. Mr. Chowdhury has emphasized that this time no hired consultant would be appointed as Mamata Banerjee had done in the case of bringing out White Paper against Lalu Prasad. The matter is mostly internal and the railways professionals are competent enough to write it. The Proposed White Paper will contain the period of three and a half years – the period occupied clearly by Mamata Banerjee, Dinesh Trivedi and Mukul Roy. It will go through all the projects and proposals sanctioned during that period and the money spend on them. It will also go into the causes why the projects could not be completed or remained only on papers. If the projects were unworkable and technically not feasible why the announcement to such projects were made? Why the people of West Bengal were kept in dark about the fact? The new status paper will also look into the skewed distribution of such projects on national Level. One should not forget to note that a Parliament Committee has criticized Mamata Banerjee for “misleading the people” by announcing a scheme without any basis and support in the railway budget for 2011-12. In its report tabled in the Rajya Sabha, the railway Convention Committee disapproved of the manner in which Ms. Banerjee as Railway Minister, announced the Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojna for developing backward areas. Under the scheme, she promised to execute 114 socially desirable projects that would require Rs. 5 Lakh crore in additional funding. The Planning Commission informed the Committee that the railways never discussed the scheme with it. And the Finance Ministry opposed it because it was unrealistic and at variance with ground realities. “Ms. Banerjee should have discussed the scheme with both the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry before formulating and announcing it” the panel said. The committee also criticized Ms. Banerjee for proposing of fund Rs. 5 Lakh crore over the next 10 years from the Accelerated Rail Development Fund (ARDF) which had not been constituted. The ARDF was not even proposed when Ms. Banerjee decided to fund Rs. one Lakh core through it to execute part of the socially desirable projects. It was surprising that the Railways did not refer the issue to the Sam Pitroda Committee of experts set up later. It suggested that a committee be appointed to examine the issue. It is a known fact that CAG will not spare Mamata Banerjee for such grave financial pitfalls and lapses which run only in air and for which Lakhs of money has been granted by the railways during her time as railway minister. She will directly be held responsible for imaginary schemes and real transfer of funds. It was loot of the railways for political and party’s advantage. The minister of state for the railways, Mr. Chowdhury has reviewed all the rail projects in West Bengal announced during the last three years for the state during the Trinmool Congress representatives at the helm of the railways ministry. Since only a little more than a year now is left for the next Lok Sabha election, the minister is keen to prioritize the projects so that some concrete results may be delivered before the polls. Mr. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had a meeting with officials of Eastern and South Eastern railways which lasted for Two hours as the minister was briefed about the status of each rail project in West Bengal. Mr. Chowdhury had emphasized that no project would be derailed because these are the part of UPA projects, but given the railways financial conditions he would like to prioritize the projects so that some tangible results could be shown. The Projects which were impractical and senseless had to be brought to public notice so that visionless and deceptive ways adopted during that period might be seen by the public at large. The Cat will ultimately fix the last nail on the coffin of those dead projects given by Mamata Banerjee to fool the innocent people of W. Bengal. Mr. Chowdhury had explained that the railway projects would suffer if land is not made available for them by the state government. He also said that it would not be possible to give employment to people giving land as a rule. It will hamper rail projects in their totality. Only in special cases some employment may be provided, but not to every person. If such formula of giving the employment to all who give land is accepted, it will require around two Lakh jobs only in Eastern Railway zone. It will pose impediment to railways development. However, the minister emphatically announced that railway projects would not suffer. “No one should think that West Bengal will be deprived by the railways. We will see how those railways projects and factories can be implemented. It will be our priority. But we have to strike a balance between resources and projects”, the minister added. During the last three years – 2010 - 11, 2011 – 12, 2012 – 13 – about 135 projects were sanctioned by the trio of Trinamool Congress to Eastern Railways including 28 rail infra structure projects, newlines, gauge conversion, and doubling. While South East Coast, Western and West Central railways got only five projects each. The North Central and North Eastern railways received only two projects each. Northern and South Eastern Railways got 16 and 13 projects respectively. Such has been the skewed distribution of projects during Trinamool Tenure of the railways. In monetary terms it is quite a disastrous distribution. The minister of state for the railways said that there were 347 ongoing new line, gauge conversion and doubling projects in the country as on April 2012. They will be completed depending upon the availability of resources. Efforts are being made to generate extra budgetary financing through state plarticipation – PPP, defence funding, declaring some projects as national projects, and implementing of bankable projects through Rail Vikas Nigam Limited to expedite completion of ongoing projects. While indicating to issue a Status Paper on about 18 rail projects announced for West Bengal during Trinamool tenure Mr. Chaowdhury said that little perceptible progress has been made because the state government is not doing its bit. In spite of huge funds infusion no progress is seen to be achieved. These projects were announced without any feasibility report and statutory clearance. The MoS alleged that they were announced for the sake of announcement only to fool the people of Bengal. These projects have been shortlisted for a detailed study and an exhaustive paper would be soon prepared for the nation in general and the people of Bengal in particular. Reacting sharply to the prophecy made by Mamata Banerjee, Mr. Chokwdhury asked Mamata to be very specific about her loyality towards NDA or UPA. Will she support Narendra Modi in the event of BJP coming to power? It is disappointing to note that Mamata Banerjee threatens to stage a comeback to the Railways by hook or by crook within two three months as according to her prophesy the elections to 16th Lok Sabha would be held shortly and no party would be able to stop her coming back to Railways when again she would try to rule (or ruin) the railways to her full satisfaction. May God save the Railways from plundering and looting! The minister for Railways P. K. Bansal had already announced that 98% funds would in no way be allotted to West Bengal. Mamata had already made mess of the railways' finances and no further concession be given to her to create a skewed distribution of funds. People of the country have right to ask her why she unevenly allotted rail projects during her stewardship? Her pronouncement to opt for railways again smacks lack of political sense and sobriety. It means the government at the center is meaningless to her and She can support any party irrespective of ideological base to have an axe to grind. It was a political miscalculation done by Mamata Banerjee when she withdrew from UPA II with an intention to topple the government. She had always been blackmailing the government on one or the other issue and trying to keep her upper hand in decision making - be it Teesta water dispute, land acquisition bill. roll back of rail fares, petrol or diesel prices or gas cylinder quota. Mamata makes the political clock stand still on the issues like NCTC, multi-brand retail trade and industial policy. It is better that the government at centre has got rid of her. She plays the political game with tricks and myopic vision. And this time her strategy failed in convincing Mulayam Singh to cooperate her in dislodging the government. The leader of Samajwadi Party, on the other hand, came much nearer to the government. Mamata has lost the game and so West Bengal too has lost the future by electing her as its leader.