Getting Railways on track - The Hindu Editorial with vocab - September 21, 2016
That it took 69 years after Independence for
India to merge the Railway Budget with the Union Budget is an indication
of how difficult it can be to junk colonial-era traditions that may have outlived their utility. In 1924, when
the first Railway Budget was presented, the Railways entailed more funds than
India’s expenditure on all other aspects of administration combined. So it made
sense to present a separate Budget. That equation changed long ago, and now the
Railways’ outlay is just 6 per cent
of the total expenditure proposed in the Union Budget for this year. In fact,
revenues from the domestic aviation business are more than the Railways’
traffic earnings. Nearly Rs.2.5 lakh crore has been planned this year as
defence expenditure, but it found little mention in the Finance Minister’s
Budget speech. Yet, the ritual of
the Rail Budget has
continued even as the economy opened up over the past 25 years. A key reason
that it lingered so long is India’s fractured (fragmented, disintegrated) polity
and the tendency of coalition partners to demand Railways as a juicy (attractive) portfolio with its possibilities for populist posturing and patronage.
With the luxury of a majority in the Lok Sabha and a Railway Minister like
Suresh Prabhu who has refused to use the Rail Budget as a launchpad for new
trains and railway lines, the NDA has thrown
its weight behind a plan that
takes away the annual temptation to make the Railways a vote-magnet.
India’s annual economic jamboree
(gathering) will now be over in two days — the tabling of the Economic
Survey followed by the Union Budget — instead of three. Railway Ministers will
no longer need to conjure up fancy
and often regurgitated promises
about new, improved services for passengers without charging them the operational
costs of reaching their destination. The pressure to hold commuter fares has skewed (change/alter) the Railways’
freight rates, year after year. Indeed, the change is already being felt;
tweaking of tariffs outside the Budget has begun. Consider the changes in coal
freight and the introduction of flexible pricing on premium passenger trains.
However, the Centre needs to now seriously consider setting up an independent
tariff regulator to depoliticise (remove
political influence) fares. New lines and trains should be determined by economic viability rather than the
constituencies covered. Initiatives such as demand-driven clone trains must be
deployed to boost earnings, and the Rs.37,000-crore tab(invoice/bill) on social obligations, including concessional
ticketing, must be borne by the exchequer. The Railways’ accounts need to be
cleaned up and made bankable (reliable).
Scrapping (abolish/discard) the Rail
Budget is a good starting point to fix the fading utility. Bringing it back
safely on track will take a lot more doing, and undoing.
outlive / / verb - to live or exist longer than
someone or something
synonyms - outlast; last beyond
outlay / / noun - an amount of money spent for a
particular purpose, especially as a first investment in something
synonyms - expenditure,
expenses
ritual / / / noun - a set of fixed actions and sometimes words
performed regularly, especially as part of a ceremony
linger / / verb - to take a long time to leave or disappear
populist / / adjective - representing or connected
with the ideas and opinions of ordinary people
posturing / / noun - behaviour or speech
that is intended to attract attention and interest, or to make people believe
something that is not true
patronage / -
the power of a person to give someone an important job or position
throw one's weight behind
phrase - - use one's power to support
(a plan/project)
jamboree / / noun - a large organized event that many
people go to, or a busy, noisy occasion or period
conjure sth up (THINK
OF) — phrasal verb -to make a picture or idea
appear in someone's mind // to
make something appear magically
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