The Aam Admi’s Indian Railway system in a mess

The Government run Indian Railways has managed to divide the Indian society into the high flying class consisting of the rich and the Government paid travelers of the Political and the bureaucratic variety and the “Aam Admi” who has no option but to travel in the risk ridden, ill maintained and poorly managed Indian rail network. How else can one explain the swanky well managed Indian airports providing services to a handful of highflyers and the dirty smelly and dilapidated railway stations and coaches providing “Cattle Class” services to the rest of the country?   No wonder the railway minister had this to say on the sidelines of a function at the Howrah Station. “I am certainly concerned about safety. And, we require huge money for safety. I think the Railways have outlived its utility as of now. We have to rebuild the entire railway system in the country almost all over again. And, I must tell you, fare hike is a very small portion of it," 

The Kakodkar Committee report on the Indian Railways has not come a day sooner and every citizen of the “Aam Admi variety is waiting to see if the Government will do anything before they become victims of a rail accident waiting to happen anytime. If the Government’s bailout package of Rs 19,000 crores to the Air India and Rs 20,000 crores to the mammoth Indian railways is anything to go by, the priorities of the Government are clear. One wonders what has happened to all the surplus funds which the earlier Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was boasting about. Did he fool the entire country and the B Schools of the world or has the subsequent Railway Ministers managed to squander the money? The Government owes an explanation to the country.

The power blinded Government and the powers who talk of Aam Admi need to know that the state of the Indian railways is something like this – As an example just go up to the Ring Road side entrance of the Hazarat Nizamuddin Railway Station. No one can enter the station without banging on some one. You cannot park a car nor can you carry your baggage without lifting it over your head. The walls protecting the railway station is the public urinal which everyone uses under public view. And if there is a rain or even a heavy drizzle, you have to roll up your trousers. The entrance to the station has just one X –ray machine to scan the entire lot of baggage carried by passengers. The crowd and the way the baggage are checked or unchecked provides confidence to none.  Walk into the platform and the strong stench welcomes you together with a filthy rail tracks and the over crowed dirty platforms. Hasn’t any one down the pecking order in the Government or the Indian Railways seen this?  If they have, what has been done about it? How can they, if all those in power happen to be air travelers? And how does it matter to them if the railways treat a “Aam Admi as a human beings or cattle? 

Get into a rail compartment – even an AC 2 Tier is dirty with mosquitoes and cockroaches moving about freely. Even at the starting station the latrines (Not wash rooms) are dirty to say the least. Does anyone inspect the coaches before it is placed on the platform? If not, why not? Is anyone accountable for ensuring cleanliness of the coach? Where are the hand wash solutions or the other material which the railways are expected to provide to a traveller? Has anyone checked as to what is the amount expended on these accounts and if the money has been washed down the drain or pocketed by someone? During Lalu’s time a band of cleaners used to come at selected stations to clean up the compartments. They seem to have vanished now. Where are they and who is getting paid for a job not done? If this is the state of the AC 2 Tier, you can well imagine the condition of the lower classes. No one seem to complain as the “Aam Admi has been conditioned into accepting such a state of affairs.    

As far as the catering services are concerned, the least said the better. 

The food supplied is insipid and its handling conducive to infections. In such a huge system, can’t a passenger have options on what he wants to eat or not? Should the menu be based purely on considerations of profit? Does anyone in the system check the quality and the state of hygiene of the food supplied? 

The British created this wonderful infrastructure for the country and we have successfully managed to make a mess of the entire system. Will someone at least now wake up and get thing going or will we find the various reports gathering dust in the Ministry of Railways? Will the railways continue to remain a utility which has outlived its utility? If we have yet another accident and lives are lost, the country will not forgive the Government.