Lalu trashes Mamata’s white paper on railways performance

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday defended his record as union railway minister, which was heavily criticised by current incumbent Mamata Banerjee in a 'white paper' tabled in parliament on Friday.

''How can investment to the tune of Rs57,000 crore be made if there was no surplus?'' asked Yadav, adding that ''all the accounting procedures were transparent as they were carried out under the supervision of the union finance minister and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).''

''The white paper shows that a dividend of over Rs20,700 crore was paid to the government, which proves beyond doubt that the railways had a cash surplus during my tenure,'' said Prasad.

He said this was because the ''financial performance had shown a record improvement, chiefly because the rate of growth in traffic earnings were significantly more than the operating expenses. ''This is further evident by comparing the operating expenses and traffic earnings during 1991-2001 and 2001-08.'' He added that the operating ratio of 75.9 per cent was the best in the last 35 years.

Responding to a criticism in the white paper that the pay commission award had not been taken into consideration, Yadav said the cumulative cash surplus of Rs88,669 crore was reworked at Rs62,363 crore after suitable adjustments.

''The figure was reworked because an amount Rs9,300 crore was deducted as arrears of the 6th Pay Commission, while interest in fund balances amounting to Rs4,138 crore, principal component of lease charges of Rs6,778 crore and losses on strategic lines valued at Rs1283 crore were deducted from the amount of Rs88,669 crore,'' he said.