White Paper demolishes Lalu’s claim

NEW DELHI, Dec. 18: It’s a “financial turnaround” story that’s gone horribly sour for the former railway minister and the RJD chief, Mr Lalu Prasad. All thanks to his successor, Ms Mamata Banerjee, who tabled a White Paper in the Lok Sabha on Friday on the railways’ performance in the last five years. The White Paper has picked several holes in Mr Prasad’s tall claims of how he made the railways a financial success story during his tenure at the Rail Bhawan.

The White Paper has raised questions about the “cash surplus before dividend” claimed during Mr Prasad’s tenure. It has noted that only two accounting changes were made in the last five years and “these have contributed significantly in inflating the figures of ‘cash surplus before dividend,’ a new way of portraying surpluses generated introduced in 2007-08.” It added, “These, together with other factors such as interest on fund balances and treatment of SRSF inflated the ‘cash surplus before dividend’ by Rs 17,0006 crore.”

This isn’t all. The White Paper has punched more holes in the growth story by implying more than once that what fuelled the increase in freight and passenger earnings in recent years was not Mr Prasad but the increase “was due to the unprecedented growth in the economy.”

Mr Prasad was quick to dub the document a “Black Paper” even as Ms Banerjee continued to maintain that it isn’t aimed at any individual.