An RTI response: Rules for railway stoppages
The Railway Board has disclosed that a Railway Minister can have a Shatabdi Express stop at intervals of less than 10km if she so wishes. Efforts to check such discretionary powers resulted in some incidents of train-burning.
IN RESPONSE to an RTI (Right to Information) petition, the Railway Board, has revealed that a Railway Minister had the discretion to direct that even the Shatabdi Express stop at intervals of less than 10 kms, if he/she so desired. The reply came to a query on whether the rules allowed eleven stoppages for Express trains in a 99km stretch between Rajgir and Patna junction in Bihar. The reply has also revealed that the railway minister is the highest decision-taking body in the railway ministry.
Efforts to check such discretionary powers resulted in some incidents of train-burning after Mamata Banerjee tried, in vain, to correct the earlier wrong-doing of accommodating train-stoppages at such short distances, only for the vote-catch policy of certain railway ministers from Bihar. Even the hyper-powered US President must move according to the reports and opinions of expert-advisors. But unfortunately, India has a democratic form of governance which is dominated by quantity rather than quality.
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