For Bihar, Railway berth is plum post

It is no surprise that RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav settled for the Railway ministry after being denied Home and Defence. It is also no surp...

It is no surprise that RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav settled for the Railway ministry after being denied Home and Defence. It is also no surprise that LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan sulked, realising that he had missed the train.

Having been Railway minister between 1996-98, Paswan knew what it meant to control the organisation that touched the entire nation. And then Nitish Kumar tasted blood and hung on to the ministry till the end of the NDA Government.

What exactly is it that makes the Railway Ministry so coveted, especially to the Biharis? One incident perhaps explains it all. Nitish Kumar, after being given the Agriculture portfolio, travelled to Jammu with Digvijay Singh, then Minister of State (Railways).

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‘‘If anybody had any doubts about the importance of the Railway Ministry, the person should have been at the Jammu station,’’ recalled an official. While a junior functionary like the tehsildar had come to receive the Union Agriculture minister in an old rundown Ambassador, an array of senior officers were there to welcome MoS Railways.

And this was no exception. The Railway minister is the king anywhere he goes in the country. With an annual budget of almost Rs 40,000 crore, the minister has the authority of sanctioning a crore here and crore there without seeking any clearance. ‘‘No other minister has this kind of power,’’ an official said. Then there are tenders to be given and privileges like free passes to be distributed. Railway ministers, specially those from Bihar, are known to have utilised these opportunities to the best of their advantage.

Ram Vilas Paswan (96-98)

		• Created Hajipur zone • 102 new trains passing through Bihar • 2 bridges in Munger and Patna worth Rs 1,700 cr • Ordered gauge conversion of all lines in East Bihar along Nepal border • Gave jobs to 10,000 people, mainly from Hajipur • Free railway passes to Dalit Sena Nitish Kumar (98-2000 and 2001-04) • Mega-bridge over river Kosi worth Rs 3,500 cr • Rs 100-crore rail coach maintenance factory • Power project in Barh worth Rs 4,000 cr • Islampur-Fatua rail line worth Rs 500 cr • 109 trains passing through Bihar • Concrete sleeper manufacturing factory