Politics- Government as Private Property

IN his budget speech the Union Railway Minister A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury sought to give the impression that all's well with the finances of his Ministry. In support of his claim he stated that for the second successive year the Railways showed a net surplus, the net operational surplus in 1983-84 being estimated at Rs 339 crore. But this is sheer propaganda. In the past three annual budgets, 1981-82 to 1983-84, increases in fares and freight rates totalled Rs 1,310 crore. ie, nearly double the amount generated in the whole of the preceding decide ending 1979-80. Yet a budgetary deficit persists together with neglect of both development activities and infrastructural necessities.