Modi's renewed fancy for railways raises new hopes. It is nice to learn that it would be the central focus of development, and would not be a Minister-centric activity that has been the bane of railways

The economic agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is getting clearer day by day, but it needs a holistic look. Mr Modi’s averment on Indian Railways not being privatised, along with the Economic Advisor’s pronouncement that the public sector would get a better role in the ‘Make in India’ campaign, sounds re-assuring to a country, where the private sector though prospering, has lived in a cocoon for having more profits and subsidies (incentives).

Mr Modi has to evolve a new economy. So far, the economic debate has veered round what is euphemistically called ‘poverty management programme’. The Prime Minister is obviously under pressure of looking for funds to pep up the economy. Obsession with foreign investment or for that matter, any kind of investment, is natural.

That is where the Government needs caution. The 23 years of Manmohanomics emphasised on private corporate growth, shrinking Government, higher cost, tax on tax, cess on cess and toll on toll. A free moving country finds too many brakes. It resulted in an increased rich-poor gap and heightened poverty. Slow growth and loss of jobs then are natural.

The new Government has to have a new economic vision combining — agriculture, farm land, growing urbanisation, road construction, low power-energy cost, industrialisation and rising taxes. Today, Value Added Tax, is to be replaced with Goods and Services Tax. Value Added Tax is 25 per cent of the price of a product. The proposed Goods and Services Tax, may be pegged around 27 per cent. It does not hurt the industry. It hurts the Government, the largest consumer, and the common man who bear the brunt of industrial profits.

The latest proposal of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, to increase road cess on petrol is a classic way of stating that Manmohanomics is not yet, dead. Even now, one pays two rupees per litre as cess and that should have built up over Rs60,000 crore corpus. The principle of fleecing the people as in Manmohanomics must not be the base of the new economy.

No country goes on building roads in perpetuity. Connectivity is meaningless if people cannot travel accordingly. When people are paying high cess, road tax, city toll — none of which are to be subsumed by Goods and Services Tax — why should they pay toll on highways or expressways built with their moneyIJ It only fattens the pocket of the \so-called developer, who thrives on public money.

First, the NDA Government should allow toll-free movement of all private vehicles, taxis and farm goods. lowering of toll, if at all to be levied, for larger commercial vehicles also has to be considered. The levy for any stretch should not exceed 30 months, the period which gives back the investment made by anyone. The 30-year lease to a concessionaire, mostly large houses, only makes the people and economy poorer. In such scenario, Mr Modi’s renewed fancy for the railways raises new hopes. It is nice to learn that it would be the central focus of development and would not be a Minister-centric activity that has been the bane of railways.

Each Minister, over the past many decades, used the railways to ‘develop’ their own constituencies, take political mileage and increase popularity by introducing trains that lose sheen no sooner a new Minister takes over.

The Prime Minister wants the Indian Railways and the postal services to be developed as the crucial infrastructure. This is the right approach. But it is also true that an ordinary post now does not reach the destination. Most of it goes into ‘raddi’. The new Government would earn kudos if the credibility of the postal services and railways are brought back.

The railways, despite many problems, remains one of the better-managed institutions. Spick-and-span trains emanating from Varanasi like the Shiv Ganga Express or the ViswaBharati Fast Passenger from Shantiniketan could be cited as instances of the capability of the railways. These have the cleanest toilets and the cheapest food.

True, Indian Railways functions against many odds. Its prioritisation of trains has to change. An older train, may be a Janata, lal Qila or Gomati, has to be restored to its original speed of 1950s or 1970s, when these were introduced — if they cannot be speeded up. The reservation system has to improve and must do away with the tatkal method, as suggested by a Parliamentary Standing Committee.

The speed of goods train at 20 km an hour, as pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, has to increase. The simple steps do no cost a penny. It only needs a change in attitude of looking down upon heritage.

Yes, it needs plan investment of Rs63,000 crore for quadrupling of tracks and a few other key improvements. But, if the railways could be slightly put back in time to restore the basic management culture, upkeep and schedule, many issues can be resolved.