Pawan Express–Does the Rail Budget give any relief?

Now that the rail budget of India is placed in the Parliament, one can well see it visibly as to what it stands for –virtually any relief to the passengers or the consumers, or so so of a window dressing. Some salient features of the budget presented by the Railway Minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal, are like this:

• There is no increase proposed in the basic passenger fare.
• Freight charges are increased by 5.8%.
• Reservation charges in respect of different categories are considerably hiked.
• Cancellation charges in respect of all the categories of class ranging from Rs.5/- to Rs.50/-
• Internet ticketing hours to be from 00.30 hrs to 23.30 hrs introducing e-ticketing through mobile phones.
• Introduction of 67 Express trains and 26 normal passenger trains on different routes.

Some like Gopinath Munde of BJP called the rail budget as Rae-Bareli budget, obviously to appease Sonia Gandhi, the Chair person of UPA. This looks to be too frivolous an allegation as there is nothing much for Rae-Bareli in the proposed rail budget. No increase in passenger fares looks like a farce as it forms more of an election slogan than any real leaf to the travellers. Increase in reservation and cancellation charges amounts to an over all increase in the fares only as all this after all affects the pocket of the passenger. The railways have already failed to ensure necessary security to the passengers coupled with every day occurring accidents, and it would have been in their interest if there was more emphasis on these counts instead of increasing number of the trains.

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On a covetous diamond like “KOHINOOR”.

British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was hailed for making his statement on Jalianwalla Bagh massacre in 1919 as “….a deeply shameful event in British history…” during his 3 days visit to India recently. This he did by making necessary entry in visitors diary kept at the massacre site at Amritsar (India). The statement so made by the British Prime Minister was welcome every where. Unfortunately it was followed by another statement of his on “Kohinoor”, the 180 carrot diamond. Kohinoor means a mountain of light as it has an enormous dazzling brightness. The British Prime Minister showed a posture of rigidness when reacting on the Kohinoor telling that he is not at all for returning it to India as it was offered to the queen Victoria as a gift. This part of his statement badly disappointed Indians to the extreme as they all know that this diamond belonged to India and that it was taken away by the British Empire through stealthily manoeuvred measures. In this process, the statement he made on Jalianwallah Bagh massacre in an honest manner got its impact dwindled. British have no reason not to return the Kohinoor to India to whom it originally belonged. They may take their time, but they will have to return it to India.

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What does most populist a budget indicate?

Uttar Pradesh government has come out with most populist a budget this year, the one for the second time by Akhilesh Yadav, the Chief Minister holding the charge of State’s finance minister. It is like a shower of rains in terms of the plans and projects announced in the name of welfare of the people in the State. It’s a good budget in a way if it really percolates downward to the public in physical shape without allowing the benefits being driven away to the pockets of the manoeuvrers as has been the practice all along. This is actually sad only, as per experience of the past, that the allocations practically don’t reach the masses as they are frisked away by the politicians who hold important positions in the system. There are whispers running high amongst the people that this amount of generosity is more because of Mulayam Singh’s eyes on the Prime Ministerial position in the elections due the very next year. Let us wish that this suspicion is wrong and that the goods are likely to be delivered to the people of the State tangibly.

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Do the stars really play any role?

People in business or those serving in different organisations very often complain that they are having bad days undergoing some setback or the other. They rush to some priest seeking a remedy. The priest tells them that it is all due to the stars going in an otherwise direction. He also names the stars like Shani, Rahu, etc. along with KaalSarp and the like responsible for the bad days to the people concerned. He also suggests necessary Puja for the purpose naming them as Mritunjaya or Mahamritunjaya jaap to overcome eventualities in the offing because of bad stars like serious illness or even death as a possibility. In most of the cases this type of modus operandi is all a fake one on the part of the priests to make money from their customers blindfolding them with several premonitions of adverse situations. Whatever it is, the customers follow the dictates of the priests blindly and in the process there is enough of money making. Such a fake diagnosis of the priests apart, the fact remains that the stars are there and it is they who play most vital a role in the life of the people. It is, however, a different matter as to how best they can be diagnosed without any falsehood.

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What does conscience stand for?

I was going through a post of a co blogger of mine the other day. She confessed several things normally people don’t do. I liked it. But how many persons are there who honestly confess things in their life, or even if they do so, how many are there to express themselves really in honest terms. Very often it is seen that the confessions are made by the people only in a guarded manner, which means that whatever they are speaking is barely the half truth, or even no truth at all. Such an expression is meaningless and has nothing to do with honesty. If conscience is the focal point, one has to make necessary expressions faithfully and truthfully. There is no compulsion as such that one has to accept his/ her ills and evils, heavens woudn’t fall if some body is not honest in the matters of expressions, but in that event one can’t claim his/ her conscience as the basis. Once conscience is the basis, the honesty demands that there has to be no hide and seek of any kind.

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Security cover–Why should it be monopolised by VIPs?

Law and order situation in the India is worst compared to other countries in the world, there could hardly be any two opinions on it. The reason is simple –major chunk of security force is in use of the VIPs, or say VVIPs. Why should they keep so much of cops with them to protect themselves?. Why should it be necessary for them to keep an army of cops for protecting themselves at the cost of people in general in

the country. The average ratio between a VIP and the common people is 1:761 which means that 761 persons are deprived of any  protection to provide necessary cover to a single VIP indicating that the life of the VIPs is much more important compared to common people in India. It is a known fact that in most of the cases security cover is provided to important politicians as a matter of an artificial grandeur and they sumptuously use it as status symbol or to settle scores with their rivals. Since they are in a commanding position in the administrative system, they attach top priority to themselves and their families leaving the people in general in a lurch. India needs reforms on several counts where this area is most salient one.

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Is it not a falsehood to depend on Consumer Courts?

The way the consumer courts are performing in our country, it’s a sheer false hood without any result orientation. They do take decisions but by the time they so do it goes too late for the consumer concerned. Consumer Courts were formed with a view to come out more quickly in respect of the decisions but what is practically happening is just the reverse. They are worse than the other normal courts. I was told by a consumer that he resorted to the consumer court with the hope that they would come out with a quicker decision in his dispute giving him necessary relief but it has taken more than three years time and there is no indication of the dispute being sorted out even in days to come. What is the use of such courts if they behave worse than the normal courts in the matter of performance. They be better abolished if they can’t be suitably rejuvenated to prove of some worth for the consumers for whom they were basically brought into existence.

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Is it that consumption level is to blame for soaring prices?

It happens many a times that you go to some market or the other to buy some thing but it is not available for the simple reason that the entire stock with shop keepers is fully sold out. You go to one ATM after the other, it is often found that the cash position with them is entirely depleted through enormous levels of withdrawal. You go to some railway station to buy a ticket for your journey, there are long queues despite bookings already being done online through computers besides the travel agents. You go any where, the unending queues are a normal scene. Wherefrom all this money comes? Is it really hard earned one or black?. Whatever it is, the position as is quite visible on the surface is that there is plenty of money available with the consumers. The very principle of demand and supply as described in economics applies. More money in the market as against the demand for supply is the root cause of soaring prices. If the black money is visibly unearthed and confiscated by the government, the price tags of different commodities are bound to go down with the result that the people may easily take a sigh of relief.

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Fear of the unforeseen!

The saying goes that ‘an empty mind is a devil’s work shop’, but this very workshop is active otherwise too even if the mind is not empty. Psychologically all humans have a propensity of thinking loose as howsoever best they try to control their mental waves, it only reverses to a further amount of loose thinking. True, some thing untoward may happen to some body at any stage of time, the fear of it unnecessarily continues haunting in the situation otherwise also. What should one do in such circumstances?. The seers advise that one should go for meditation by concentrating on certain objects which interest him or her. What happens in the process is just the otherwise. Mind starts travelling unbridled landing at varying situations inviting  more amount of uneasiness. The best alternative is to allow the mind the way it prefers to travel simply trying to pickup some soothing ideas here and there.

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