New Delhi, July 3
The simmering political rivalry was to the fore as Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee did not hesitate in taking a swipe at her predecessor, Lalu Prasad Yadav, while presenting the Railway Budget here today.

Although she did not carry out much changes in Lalu’s pet “Tatkal” scheme, she pointed out that the freight targets set in the interim budget were unrealistic and that she would come out with a “white paper” on operational and financial status of the public sector behemoth based on the last five-year performance, a direct attack on Lalu’s stint at the Rail Bhawan.

The Tatkal scheme had earned the Railways huge profits over the past few years that encouraged Lalu to increase seat quota under to as much as 30 per cent. With Mamata looking to present an “aam aadmi” budget, this quota was under threat despite opposition from officials of the Rail Bhawan.

However, the mandarins at the railway headquarters seem to have prevailed and the only change that Mamata brought about in the scheme was reducing Tatkal charges from Rs 150 to Rs 100. The Tatkal fares would be a fixed percentage of the actual fare.

The scheme had earned the Railways more than Rs 1,000 crore over the past three years. Originally, the scheme was about allocating only a few berths to those who had not booked in advance, but needed to travel, even if it cost more.

However, under Lalu, the scheme acquired bigger dimensions and turned into a revenue spinner. This made him increase the Tatkal quota dramatically over the years.

Proposing revision of the scheme to make it more passenger friendly, the Railway Minister said both advance booking time and minimum charge would be reduced.

She said perceptible improvement would be ensured in passenger amenities. Safety and security would be given utmost importance. Cleanliness and quality of railway catering would be improved with focus on strict monitoring. She proposed that ticketing facilities would be taken to the grassroot level.

However, in this she did not let go the chance to get at her predecessor. She pointed out that meeting the needs of passengers was more important than financial performance, a shot at Lalu, who while going out of the ministry had said that he was leaving behind Rs 94,000 crore as surplus in the Railways kitty over the past five years.

However, Mamata did admit in her speech that the Railways had generated a cash surplus of about $18.8 billion over the past five years. Taking another swipe at Lalu, she said she was presenting this Budget in the backdrop of shortfall in performance of the Railways in 2008-09. Freight loading fell short of the target of 850 tonnes and the revenue expected from commercial utilisation of surplus land also did not materialise.

“This forced me to review the targets set for 2009-10 in the Interim Budget. Based on the review, it is very clear that the unrealistically high targets set in the Interim Budget are not sustainable and warrant a mid-course correction,” she said.