Piyush Goyal will have to walk a tight rope as railway minister

Nirmala Sitharaman named defence minister, Piyush Goyal gets Railways 

No result found, try new keyword!Nirmala Sitharaman was named the new defence minister, only the second woman to hold the post since former prime minister Indira Gandhi.


Piyush Goyal will have to walk a tight rope as railway minister 

Piyush Goyal. (File Photo | Reuters) NEW DELHI: As Piyush Goyal was appointed as the new Railway Minister, his cabinet colleague and fellow Mumbaikar Suresh Prabhu's nearly three year tenure as rail minister, which saw 346 accidents and the highest number of 193 passenger deaths in a decade in 2016-17, came to an end. Goyal is the third railway minister in NDA government tenure. Prabhu, who became railway minister in November 2014, had replaced Sadanand Gowda. But Goyal, who also holds portfolio of coal minister, will have to hit ground running in railways and focus on steps to improve freight earnings, complete pending projects and ensure passenger safety while passenger fare needs to remain untouched keeping in mind 2019 general election. Railways is facing loss of Rs 36000 crore annually owing to passenger fare subsidy. Goyal will have to also look after shaping up of PM's dream bullet train project. The ground breaking is likely to take place mid-September. Prabhu, who is appointed as Commerce minister, was handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 to lead the team of the largest number of 13 lakh government employees and bring ailing railways back on track. But his performance was under scanner for long and there were rumours in past few weeks that he will lose the ministry. The final blow came in the Utkal Express derailment on August 19 that killed 23 people. Railways accepted that accident happened due to negligence of its own staff. Prabhu had offered to quit the same day but was asked to wait by the prime minister. Prabhu had himself removed many senior officials fixing direct responsibility for the increasing mishaps. Railway witnessed 371 accidents during NDA's tenure and 346 happened under Prabhu as railway minister. The highest number of 193 passenger deaths since 2016 was reported in 2016-17 was also during his tenure. Even before reshuffle of portfolios was officially announced, Prabhu tweeted his gratitude to railway employees. "Thanks to all 13 Lacs plus rail family for their support, love, goodwill. I will always cherish these memories with me. Wishing you all a great life," Prabhu tweeted.As the list of new portfolios to minister was made public, Prabhu welcomed Goyal as new Railway Minister. "Welcoming my long time dear friend, colleague Piyush Goyal to Railway Ministry. I offer all my help to him to make railways world class. All best. Thanks to all passengers, customers, media, stakeholders, partners, MPs, state govts, public reps, social org, employees, for unstinted support as Minister of Railways," he said in his farewell tweet. Prime Minister was not happy with slow pace of reforms in railways, which has been projected by him as driver of change for it touches lives of millions of Indians. Prabhu a chartered accountant by profession was brought in as railway minister with expectations to improve government run transporters' financial health but under him freight loading fell further and operating ratio jumped over 100 percent. He did take some measures like decentralisation of tendering powers to check corruption, formation of non-fare revenue directorate, planning high speed and semi high-speed trains, dynamic fare pricing, merger of railway budget with general budget and formation of an independent tariff authority to take call on fare hike among others.  "Several policy measures were taken by him with very good intention but the problem was the slow or no progress of these measures," said sources in the ministry. He was also one of the most active ministers on Twitter and has offered help to several passengers in need and his tweet on Sunday reflected just that. “My dear friends, many request me to reply their grievances and be in touch. Pls (Please) appreciate & understand, I will no longer able reply on Rail issues,” Prabhu tweeted.  


Suresh Prabhu failed. Can Piyush Goyal meet PM Narendra Modi, people's expectations? 

Suresh Prabhu was made the Railway Minister by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first reshuffle of the Cabinet in November 2014. PM Modi expected him to turnaround the Railways. There were talks about high-speed trains, safety, high quality services in trains and a world quality operation of the Railways. More than two-and-a-half years later, on August 4 this year, Suresh Prabhu informed the Rajya Sabha that 333 people lost their lives in the last three years in 206 train derailments. Fifteen days later, on August 19, another train derailed in western Uttar Pradesh (Kalinga Utkal Express) killing 22 more. In fact, three train accidents happened in a space of 10 days. On August 23, the Delhi-bound Kaifiyat Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh's Auraiya district. More than 80 people were injured in the mishap. On August 29, another train (Nagpur-Mumbai Duronto Express) derailed at Kalyan in Maharashtra. Several people were injured. However, no casualty was reported. RAILWAYS - THE TROUBLEMAKER Suresh Prabhu offered his resignation in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who asked him to wait for few more days. It had, by then, become clear that Suresh Prabhu would be removed from the Railways. After the Cabinet reshuffle today, Piyush Goyal deservedly got elevated to the cabinet rank and got the Railways portfolio. The state of Railways makes Piyush Goyal's job unenviable. The Railways have been a troublesome portfolio for the ministers. Of the 39 Railway ministers till date, only Jagjivan Ram (father of Meira Kumar) and Lalu Prasad Yadav have completed their full tenure of five years. Very few Railways ministers have survived a major train accident. The list of casualties includes Lal Bahadur Shastri, who resigned after Ariyalur train accident in Tamil Nadu, where 142 people died in 1956 mishap. BJP's new-old ally Nitish Kumar had to resign following a train accident in Assam where nearly 300 people were killed in 1999. Nitish Kumar's successor, Mamata Banerjee tendered resignation after twin train accidents in 2000. Now, Suresh Prabhu has been shifted or demoted after three train accidents in 10 days. WHAT PEOPLE THINK ABOUT RAILWAYS Piyush Goyal takes over the Railways on the basis of his performance in the power ministry, where he turned out to be a strict task master. But, the Railways, being the largest job provider under the government, may need a different handling as its problems are different from the energy sector. In a recent survey conducted by the citizen's engagement platform LocalCircles, which has a tie-up with the consumer affairs department in the area of public grievances, people expressed concerns about safety, fares and quality of services offered by the Railways. Only 13 per cent of over 10,000 participants said that safety of Railways was adequate. About 43 per cent are of the view that safety standards have improved only marginally while another 44 per cent feel that it has either deteriorated or remained the same as earlier.   The new flexi-fare system introduced by Suresh Prabhu has not been received by people well. Piyush Goyal may have to reconsider the decision. About 54 per cent respondents in the survey do not see this as an improvement with 30 per cent terming it "worse". Only 14 per cent find it better than the previous system of ticket pricing.   On the question of services provided by the Railways during a train journey, about 69 per cent of the respondents find it same as before or worse. Only 22 per cent say that there has been "sizeable improvement."   People seem to be happy with the cleanliness in trains and at stations. About 77 per cent participants say that cleanliness in the Railways has improved either marginally or considerably.   During his last days as Railways Minister, Suresh Prabhu complained about the non-cooperation from the lower rung staff and officials of the department. Piyush Goyal's primary job would be to instill confidence among the people about safety of the Railways while instilling confidence among the staff of the department, who may have felt alienated during Suresh Prabhu's tenure. ALSO READ | 3,4,5,6 of Cabinet reshuffle: How Narendra Modi built his new team Cabinet reshuffle: Why Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, Naqvi were promoted Cabinet reshuffle: Nirmala Sitharaman named Defence Minister, second woman to hold portfolio after Indira Gandhi