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Achieve Forgotten Targets by Unveiling Rail Safety Blueprints
- Published on 22 June 2023
(Image courtesy:crs.gov.in)
"I would like to emphasise on one thing and that is the accountability. The accident took place and more than 300 people died. Earlier also the accidents had taken place. Some Ministers resign and some others do not do so. It is not the accountability of the Hon. Minister only but of the Government. The Government is accountable to the House. It is accountable to the railway passengers. If such a big accident takes place then what is the morality and what is the justification of constitutional morality, the House wants the reply to all this?" stated A.B. Vajpayee as an Opposition stalwart in Lok Sabha on 21st August 1995.
Mr. Vajpayee, a Bharat Ratna & BJP Marg Darshak, was participating in a debate on an accident involving Purushottam Express and Kalindi Express near Firozabad in UP.
His passion & vision for transparency and accountability has direct relevance to Balasore Trains disaster (BTD) in Odisha in which two passenger trains & one goods train collided.
A similar triple trains collision happened in Jharkhand on 20th March, 1959. On that day, No. 664 Dn. goods train from Rourkela side was waiting at the Down Outer Signal of Chakradharpur. Meanwhile, No. 656 Down Goods, also coming from Rourkela side, collided into its rear.
As a result, seven wagons of No. 656 Goods train got derailed blocking the Up Main line. A few minutes later, No. 2 Up Howrah-Bombay Mail (HBM) left Chakradharpur and collided with the derailed wagons. HBM's engine got derailed and capsized and two coaches next to it also derailed.
Several accidents in loop lines, including a tragic head-on collision with a parked Military Special train in August 1991 in UP, have happened over the decades. Train collision on main lines have been many more. Similarly, instances of derailed coaches or bogies, infringing an adjoining track, and thus becoming the cause of second accident have recurred.
Similar is the story of instances of hanging parts of rail infrastructure or any other obstruction on track becoming a cause of accident. Two such recent incidents figured in a safety conference presided over by Chairman of the Railway Board (RB) on 3rd April 2023.
Don’t let ONGC Petro Additions Ltd turn into a Failure
- Published on 19 May 2023
(OPaL-image courtesy: narendramodi.in )“This plant has emerged and earned the important place in SEZs (Special Economic Zones) of the world,” stated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 7th March 2017 while dedicating to the Nation ONGC Petro Additions Limited (OPaL), Dahej, Gujarat.
A press release available at cmogujarat.gov.in quotes PM as saying that OPaL “has created employment opportunities for lakhs of youth residing across India. This is the biggest success in the history of India ever.” A PIB release quoted him as saying: “OPaL is like an anchor industry. It is the largest petrochemical plant in the country.”
So far so good. A lot has changed since PM’s 2017 speech. A shuddhi yagya, (purification worship) on OPaL is thus required to respect his call for constructive criticism, articulated time & again. The Yagna should also be performed keeping in view Mr. Modi’s passion and vision for exports.
Yagna should also help resolve long-pending matter of transforming OPaL from a tripartite joint venture (JV) into ONGC subsidiary. In the JV, the original promoter Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has 49.36% stake, GAIL (India) Ltd has 49.21% stake. The balance 1.43% shares are held by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited (GSPC).
OPaL’s delayed financial restructuring is intertwined with indecision on its conversion into ONGC subsidiary or induction of private strategic partner(s). Indecisiveness on this matter conflicts with the Government’s repeated claims that it believes in speed and scale in the decision-making process. More on OPaL’s financial crisis later in this column.
The multi-facet Yagna can help prevent OPaL from going down in the history as the biggest failure on certain counts - the chief being exports, which is its foremost objective. The company’s own estimates show a negative net forex exchange (NFE) earnings of Rs 18856.83 crore over 10 years ending 30th July 2025.
Shuddhi Yagna on SEZs Calls for DESH Ordinance
- Published on 28 April 2023
WHAT is unsaid or the least said or simply forgotten is as important as what is hyped in the national discourse. This fact always emerges as the 24-carat gold in any Shuddhi Yagna of policies. This test is equally applicable to the sermons given by all stalwarts over the years across the political spectrum. (See: https://bit.ly/3xyCXT6)
A recent instance that requires Shuddhi Yagna (purification worship) is the policy paralysis on Special Economic Zones (SEZs). These drivers of growth and foreign exchange reserves have been waiting for a decade for policy certainty and stability.
Modi Government inherited terrible mess in this area from the UPA regime. The former was expected to reform SEZ policy, tax incentives and relevant laws to put SEZs on an even keel. This has not happened till today.
Commerce & Industry Minister (CIM) Piyush Goyal did not refer to ‘SEZs' even once in the foreword to Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023. The abbreviation ‘SEZ' went missing in the official presentation of FTP unveiled on 31 st March 2023. There was hardly anything new on SEZs, both in the detailed policy and in the handbook of procedures on FTP.
This oversight is unwelcome as SEZs policy is a great legacy and a big-ticket reforms from Vajpayee Government. It unveiled SEZ policy on 31st March 2000 as an engine for export-led growth. The policy formed part of larger export-import policy (later renamed as FTP).
Amrit Kaal Needs Robust Legislatures & Centre-State ties on Fiscal Turf
- Published on 03 April 2023
(Image Courtesy: taxindiaonline.com)
India's Fiscal domain is facing crisis akin to the climate change characterized by extreme weather conditions. The other day Lok Sabha passed Rs 45 lakh crore Budget for 2023-24 in 12 minutes without debate.
This happened due to persisting daily ruckus created by both the treasury benches & the Opposition MPs.
The spectacle led the Lok Sabha Speaker into applying the usual guillotine to dispense with whatever little was agreed for discussion of demand for grants of few ministries. Guillotine is a parliamentary procedure on financial matter. It is supposed to be applied when lengthy discussion remains incomplete & the House is hard-pressed of time.
Both houses of Parliament barely conduct any serious, debate-driven business. The discussion, if held, is often focussed on blame-game that often spill over into bitter acrimony between BJP and the Opposition.
Hardly any effort is to made to debate the mountain of national, regional and local problems & arrive at a consensus on overcoming them within defined time frame.
The second extreme and unprecedented development was Delhi Government's inability to present the budget for 2023-24 on scheduled day. This happened due to the Centre not approving the Delhi Budget as lieutenant governor (LG) had raised certain queries and wanted changes in outlays.
The Ministry of Home Affairs cleared the Budget only after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue hogged headlines.
Other Opposition parties-ruled States too have been impacted adversely by the Centre's certain decisions on financial matters.
Both these extremities in fiscal domain can derail BJP Government's 2nd attempt in two decades to put India into the orbit of developed nations. This perhaps requires average annual GDP growth of 8% on sustained basis. (Please read https://bit.ly/3KlWbB4).
And two pre-requisites for such robust growth rate are: 1) Legislatures must ensure the most judicious use of public money. This requires scrutiny of all budget documents by MPs and MLAs for asking the probing questions to the Government 2) The Centre should not create hurdles for Opposition-ruled States and treat them on equal footing with BJP-ruled States, which are branded as Double-Engine Government by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.