Invoked Mamata,echoed Plan panel

But the two critical announcements made by the Railways Minister the consideration of an independent Railway Tariff Regulatory Authority and the contemplation of a Fuel Adjustment Component in passenger services were major reforms that both the Planning Commission and PMO have been asking successive Railways ministers to mull.

If set up at all,the RTRA would essentially deal with fare fixation,both passenger and freight,while the introduction of FAC would mean fare increase or decrease automatically in line with the fuel costs. For the past couple of years,Rail Bhavan has been asked to consider both measures to pull itself out of the financial quagmire it now finds itself in. Each time these measures were proposed,they ran into political walls called Mamata Banerjee and Lalu Prasad.

While Trivedi played it safe by only talking about considering these proposals for the time being,he at least displayed some bravado in including them in the budget document,knowing fully well that they could never find favour with his party leader.

There has been a demand from several quarters for setting up of an independent Railway Tariff Regulatory Authority that will suggest the level of tariffs both for freight and fares. However,I feel this is an important area and needs a serious debate. The pros and cons of the decision are required to be considered carefully. There is no exclusive body to advise whether an independent regulatory body is desirable, he told Parliament on Wednesday,adding that he was appointing a body of experts to this.

He also said that he was contemplating a system of segregating fuel component in the cost associated with passenger services and call it FAC fuel adjustment component. The FAC will be dynamic in nature and will change in either direction with the change of fuel cost, he said.

He also did some straight talk: I must also be forthright and take the House into confidence in mentioning that in the event of any further increase in input costs of railways,it will not be possible for us to keep the passengers cushioned from the impact of such increases.

Despite having these ideas of reform,Trivedis speech never betrayed the sense that he was not on the same page with his party leader.

Beginning his speech by saying he was grateful to Mamata Banerjee for her support and confidence,Trivedi named his party chief in a list of former railways ministers that had names like Asaf Ali,Lal Bahadur Shastri,Kamalapati Tripathi and Madhu Dandavate. In fact,in jumping to Mamatas name right after Dandvates,Trivedi skipped 14 Union Railways Ministers who were there in between. Some prodding from the Opposition benches led Trivedi to take Lalus name in the same list.

Trivedi thanked Mamata for giving vision to railways through her Vision 2020 document. When he talked about safety never sleeps he made sure to add as emphasised by Mamata Banerjee all along.

When he talked about Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojana,Trivedi made sure to add as conceptualised by my leader Mamata Banerjee. When he talked about how this years budget would be a link in the chain and would seamlessly integrate with the 12 th Five Year Plan,he ensured to talk of Vision 2020 document of Mamata Banerjee in the same breath as the Plan.

Talking of projects on Kolkata Metro,Trivedi underlined that these had been announced by Mamata. A wagon factory in Odisha and the Izzat scheme-both announced by Mamata,too ,found mention in his speech.