The Left party, participating in a discussion on the Railway budget in Lok Sabha, also opposed privatisation moves in the Railways.
NEW DELHI: The opposition BJP and the CPI(M), an ally of the UPA, on Thursday asked government to explain how Indian Railways earned a whopping profit of Rs 20,000 crore despite fall in passenger traffic by nearly seven per cent.
The Left party, participating in a discussion on the Railway budget in Lok Sabha, also opposed privatisation moves in the Railways.
"Profit has been earned from tatkal and superfast charges and not from increase in passenger traffic. The Railway Minister should state whether profit has been earned from passenger fares or freight," Thawar Singh Gehlot (BJP) said.
Initiating the discussion, Gehlot alleged that Prasad has discrminated against certain states by not announcing new rail lines.
States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have been neglected, he said.
Pointing out that passengers do not feel secure in trains, he said about 10,000 posts of Railway Protection Force are still lying vacant.
Anil Basu (CPI-M) argued how could Prasad claim that Railways have earned 14 per cent profit when statistics reveal that the passenger traffic has increased by only seven per cent.
He stoutly opposed the private-public partnership and said outsourcing and privatisation of services would create unrest among employees.
The Marxist member said the outsourcing of services would render catering and container units unviable. He also referred to the closure of the railway printing press at
Byculla.
Basu said the new commodity-based traffic concept would hit medium scale steel utilities hard as they would find the freight costlier.
Samajwadi Party's Rewati Raman Singh opposed efforts to privatise certain rail services, while Brahmananda Panda (BJD) claimed rail services in Orissa had been neglected.
K C Palanisamy (DMK) complimented the Minister for "efficient administration" which led to passenger benefits and profits.
In the same vein, Ramkripal Yadav (RJD) said no past Railway Minister had presented a surplus budget. He quoted figures and said there were 1051 accidents in the last three years of NDA rule compared with 650 in UPA's three years.
Similarly, the NDA regime earned Rs 10,646 crore in these three years while UPA generated a revenue of Rs 30,286 crore for railways in the same number of years.
Prakash Pranjape of the Shiv Sena suggested the Railways allow commercial use of its unused land.
Bhubhneswar Prasad Mehta (CPI) said the Railways should use its profits for improving infrastructure and safety standards.
The BJP's Kashi Ram Rana alleged that the rail budget has put indirect financial burden on passengers.
He also sought reduction in penalty for ticketless travellers.
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