Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has scuttled a bid to do away with free passes for serving and retired railway employees a sop they have enjoyed for years now while costing the government upwards of Rs 500 crore annually. Signalling her clout as the most important ally of the Congress in the UPA,Banerjee refused to budge from her stand at the meeting of the Union Cabinet on Thursday to even consider the recommendations of the 10th Expenditure Reforms Commission which proposed an end to the system of doling out free passes to railway employees. The Trinamool Congress led by Banerjee is the second largest party in the UPA with 19 MPs in the Lok Sabha,and its importance has shot up in the context of the forthcoming West Bengal elections. The Congress is hoping to ride piggyback on the Trinamools popularity to make itself relevant in the state once again. A study commissioned by the Centre in 2005 had found that 14,24,389 serving employees and 11,43,993 pensioners had availed free passes in that year alone. Over the next three years,average figures indicated that the cost incurred for every serving employee was Rs 3,311 while that for pensioners was Rs 498. The total cost,therefore,resulted in Rs 471.57 crore expenditure for serving employees and Rs 56.93 crore for retired personnel. The study was commissioned after the Railway Ministry in 2005 refused to agree to a similar proposal to end the system of free passes. The Expenditure Reforms Commission had come up with the recommendations in the backdrop of cost-cutting and the governments bid to impose austerity measures besides ending subsidy regimes in organisations like the Railways. The sources indicated that there wasnt much resistance to the Railway Ministers insistence that the quota of free passes should stay. Banerjees victory in the Union Cabinet,though,was in contrast to the setback she suffered recently when the government cleared two disinvestment proposals that she had opposed. The Railway Minister had little option then but to stay away from the CCEA meeting that approved equity sale in government-owned Coal India Limited and Hindulstan Copper Limited.
