With no sign of a Cabinet reshuffle, many key decisions in the railways and highways sectors are moving at a snail’s pace.
At present, Highways Minister C.P. Joshi holds additional charge of Railways, but it is not yet clear whether he will continue to hold both the portfolios. As a result of this political uncertainty, key decisions in both the sectors are stuck.
Earlier, the names of Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad were doing the rounds for these two portfolios.
Joshi, meanwhile, has started familiarising himself with the Rail Ministry and has been holding frequent meetings. While a source close to the Minister claimed that decision-making was not impacted, many officials in both the Ministries said clarity on the issue would help, particularly in case of larger issues, where a strong stance by the Minister was required.
KEY DECISIONS
Some key decisions that need a push at the Ministerial as well as inter-ministerial level include reviving the stalled projects in the highway sector and setting up a regulator for highways and railways.
Also, in just about a month’s time, at least three Railway Board posts need to be filled – Chairman, Railway Board, Member-Traffic, and Financial Commissioner. All these posts require the Minister’s involvement. Also, these are sensitive decisions given the controversial circumstances in which Joshi’s predecessor and party colleague, Pawan Bansal, had to exit.
Bansal had to resign after the CBI arrested his nephew for allegedly accepting a bribe for a plum Railway Board posting from the Railway Member-Staff.
REGULATORY BODIES
Sources said it would help if decisions on issues such as setting up regulators were taken up before the country gets into an election mode. General elections are due in 2014.
Incidentally, Joshi had supported the idea of a rail tariff authority during his month-long tenure as Minister in 2012. The proposal was processed during Bansal’s six-month regime.
In fact, the Prime Minister’s Office had even set January 15 as deadline for floating a Cabinet proposal to set up a rail tariff regulator.
Meanwhile, other than conceptual discussions, there has been no progress on the setting up of a highway regulator. The decision to set up a regulator for the highways sector was announced by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in this year’s Budget.
STALLED PROJECTS
Another issue is that of stalled highway projects in public-private partnerships, which were awarded two-three years ago, but are yet to take off. Reviving them would require reopening closed contracts, a move not many are comfortable with after the Law Ministry declined to give a green signal to the proposal.