Respected Chairperson Speaker and my fellow Parliamentarians,

Historical reminiscence seems to be the favorite topic of this Modi Government;

both the 1st and 2nd version. But non delivery of promises is something which is
constant result in both the Modi Governments. Today I wont blame Nehruji for
all their short-comings. But would just take my speech forward and backward a
couple of years ago to ask my Railway Minister:

Kya huwa un kasmo waadon ka jo tumne kaha tha nibhaoge

Modiji ke naam pe; desh ko aur kitna chuna lagaoege?

First promise; Suresh Prabhu Sir. Budget of 2015. This was the beginning of
Jumlanomics. Everyone was saying Modiji can do this, Modiji can do that. Some
even said he could walk on water! Suresh Prabhu Sir on the floor of this august
house declared that “SPEED IN NINE RAILWAY CORRIDORS WOULD GO UPTO
200 Km/hr”. I was amazed like Wah! Modiji Wah! But sadly 4 years down the
line we are yet to achieve those astronomical speeds. Train 18 could reach 180
Km/hr speeds on trial experimental run. But in actual commercial run the
average speed falls down to as lows as 100 km/hr with top speed at 130 Km/hr.
Jumla aside, I ask in a country where an average passenger train travels at 30
km/hr, an express train at 50 km/hr, superfast trains CONTRASTING NAME at 65
km/hr and Rajdhani/Shatabdi at 100 km/hr; where are we standing really Mr.
Railway Minister? Under your Chowkidaari, the average speed of freight train
decreased according to your very own report in 2017-18. WHY IS A MINISTRY
AIMING FOR BULLET TRAIN SPEEDS STILL RUNNING ON CHUK CHUK GAADI
ATTITUDE?

Talking about “Targeted Operating Ratio”. It is used to determine the efficiency

of a Organisation’s management by comparing operating expenditure to net
revenue. In railways, an operating ratio of 80 or lower is desirable because it is
a public service and we cannot be expecting high returns. But in the 2015
Budget, Prabhu Ji declared targeted operating ratio for 2015-16 was at 88.5%
against 91.8%in 2014-15: best in the last 9 years as he claimed. Now my question
to Honorable Railway Minister is: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Madam
declared Railways would achieve an operating ratio of 95% which was sold as a
gamechanger. So is Finance Minister celebrating the fact that Railways became
less efficient under Modiji in last 4 years comparing with Suresh Prabhu Sir’s
statement that we will be targeting lower ratios in upcoming years?
Coming to 2016. Suresh Prabhu Sir again. The Minister declares railways target
a construction of new lines at 7 Km/day. He declares about achieving 13 km/day
by 2017-18 and 19 km/day by 2018-19. Great ambitions, I must say. But
humorously, the Indian Railways Annual Report 2017-18 states that 409 Km of
new lines were laid in 2017-18 at the speed of 1.1 KM/day! The Minister himself
informed this house in interim budget that India is building roads at 27 km/day
speed. But 1 km/day in railways. How’s the Josh Railway Minister, I must ask?
But in totality I ask the Prime Minister, on whose name this Government is run
and whose name this Parliamentary Democracy has been turned into a
Presidential Dictatorship. WHAT HAVE YOU DELIVERED?

2017 Budget. Swatch Bharat was the theme of the Government. Mr Prabhu
declared that by 2019 all the toilets, I emphasize on the word ALL, will be fitted
with bio-toilets. Spending nearly Rs 13.7 Billion by 2018; the present Minister
Piyush Goyal Ji declares that instead of bio-toilets, which were declared to be no
better than septic tanks; he would be EXPERIMENTING with vacuum bio toilets
like in airplanes. Great, but what about the previous target? What about Swatch
Bharat and defecation free railway lines? Those questions remained
unanswered in this INSIPID budget as called by P Chidambaram Sir

Coming out of the Historical nostalgia and back to reality. I focus on financial
performance; a topic in which the Honourable Railway Minister is one of the
best in this House; being a Charted Accountant Topper of All India. Sir, the
carrying capacity of freight services increased by 4% while the earning capacity
still by just 11%. Passenger volume increased by 2% but earning by 5%. Railways
brought in dynamic pricing in several trains. Revenues saw a growth of 9% year-
on-year for past 2 years. But the Railway is barely breaking even when once
upon a time; in Congress era; it used to pay dividend to the Central Government
out of surplus to fund social schemes. What went wrong my Minister and what
are the steps you are taking to bring back its efficiency to Congress times?
Because clearly the balance sheet and number say otherwise. The 2% cess on
Petrol and Diesel put by Sitharaman Madam will hurt his bottomline as well.
Shouldn’t he be protesting against such fuel price hike for his own Ministry’s
interest?

Also, can the Minister provide further clarification on the Rs 2084 Crores of
expenses made in the detail Demand of Grants where it was declared that the
amount was “re-imbursement of losses on operating strategic railway lines”. As
of now, privatization of Railway hasn’t been done and all the entities including
our Indian Army for whose movement it is important to maintain services in such
areas; are all Government entities. So to whom was this re-imbursement of
losses paid and why?

Talking about Punctuality, something for which Indian Railways is in-famous for.
Only 71% of the trains ran on time. If delivery is the main mantra of this
Government, what steps have they taken for ensuring timely movement of
trains, especially during winter and peak seasons? As several trains in India are
known to be late by 10-12 hours, not minutes. Yet we aim for Bullet Trains and
5 Trillion Dollars when the citizens need timely service of normal trains and
Indian Rupee based sustenance at times of economic crisis. When the
Government was advertising about UDAAN scheme, marketing, something at
which it is good at. It said how a person wearing chappal can now fly in planes.
But my question to the same people is why cannot Railway passengers wearing
chappals like Airplane passengers be compensated for late trains? Is Railway
passenger’s time not valuable as plane passenger’s? Shouldn’t we have a similar
system in place to ensure efficiency? This is clearly an example of Bharat Vs
India divide where poor Bharat railway passengers who buy tickets with their
hard earned money have to sleep at Railway platforms waiting for their trains
to arrive; while India-N Airline passengers get hotel accommodation for delay
in flights. Minister should clearly place a system for loss in re-booking or
cancelling further connected trains to ensure equality to railway passengers.

The Railway in the Reports tabled stated that it sits on a land bank of 4.77 lakh
hectares. My question is why is this land bank not used to resettle slums across
the Railway lines in urban centres of India? Minister talks about line doubling
and capacity increasing but we fail to address this important issue of slums
across the lines which gives a poor image to development story of India. Its
about time we address this issue.

The Minister talks about Green budgeting. But fails to mention that diesel
locomotives are one of the biggest polluters in India. Sadly, when the question
of pollution comes, everyone blames my Constituency industry for a single day
event; while the railways are still in experimental basis to convert carbon
chimney Diesel locomotive to semi-electric. We need to move beyond the
concept of sin tax on coal and carbon based fuels to a more comprehensive plan
setting a cut-off date by which all locomotive will be environmental friendly. If
Bharat IV norms were to be applied; I am sure the Courts would have banned
diesel trains by now!
Looking at the other spectrum of environment. Several trains traverse through
wild-life corridors especially elephant corridors in Western Ghats. I read an
article that the Government is experimenting with bee-buzzing loudspeakers to
distract elephants. But why distract them instead of building “walk-over
corridors like natural ROBs or elevated structure to help movement of wild
animals without endangering them? We need to invest on our wildlife beyond
cost-effective alternatives to natural alternatives that ensures no impediment is
caused to their natural movement. Environment has to take primacy! Jio or Jine
Do should be the motto of this Government.

Another thing that startled me in the Indian Railway Annual Report was why was
only one language HINDI; which was promoted within Indian Railways as official
language? The country has 22 scheduled languages but the Railways seem to be
encouraging only two: Hindi and English. Even figures of report were in Hindi
and English while on principle it should be on all 22 languages. We already saw
protest in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka against imposition of Hindi in Station
names. Hence it is my request to Minister to maintain the secular fabric of
country.

Keeping our Political differences aside, I have advice to Minister to focus more
on export of rolling stocks, coaches, locomotives to 3rd World developing
nations. Chennai which is a hub of Railway Manufacturing with its Integral
Coach Factory can cater the demands of developing countries which have
railway design similar to ours. Tamil Nadu Ports can be gateway to countries like
Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bangladesh, African Nations and our South American
counterparts. There is an increasing demand for high capacity carrying coaches,
a niche market which India is perfectly placed to exploit. But sadly our focus is
so much on bullet trains that we forgot that we are good at manufacturing
something which we can use as a gift to rest of the world for transportation.

I would be doing injustice if I don’t bring up the request of my constituents of

Virudhunagar. It is my humble request to Railway Minister to extend the
frequency of 16181/16182 Silambu Express presently traveling thrice a week
into a daily train. Reintroduce 16189 Antodaya Express travelling in between
Tambaram-Sengottai(Tirunelveli). Also expedite construction of Road over
Bridges(ROBs) over railway tracks at Satchiyapuram, Thirumangalam,
Tiruttangal. For this act, we would be truly thankful to him.