Getting Railways on track - The Hindu - StarkAK

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Saturday, September 24, 2016

Getting Railways on track - The Hindu



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


regurgitate -  If you regurgitate facts, you just repeat what you have heard without thinking about it

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