Should IAS Sudhir Kumar rewrite his book on railways turnaround?

CALL it bankruptcy to millions rather than billions! Should Sudhir Kumar, influential 1982-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer and ex-OSD to former railway minister Lalu Prasad rewrite his much talked about book “Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways Transformed” if current railway minister Mamata Banerjee's white paper painting the turnaround saga in black, comes true? Will Harvard University which too did a case study on Indian Railways' financial success now review its conclusions in the backdrop of the white paper's claim that a cash surplus of nearly Rs 90,000 crore ($18 billion) during Lalu Prasad's tenure as railway minister, was an inflated figure thanks to the changes made in accounting methods. The introduction of a concept called "investible surplus", also inflated the cash reserve by another Rs 23,584 crore ($4.7 billion), the paper said. The question is now whether Sudhir Kumar who was OSD to Mr Prasad from September 1, 2004 to May 22, 2009 will rewrite his book, explaining his side of the story. Mr Kumar who has been a joint secretary in the ministry of power since May 22, 2009, attracted quite a lot of enemies in the Rail Bhawan because of his handholding in all important events of the ministry. No wonder, Indian Railways with 1.4 million employees is one of the very few government ministries which are not headed by all powerful IAS officers. Reacting to babu blogger’s earlier post on why Sudhir Kumar should help Lalu, never known to be a mathematical wizard, in recalculating Rs 90,000 cr surplus in railways, one of the readers commented, “Could it be a case of Alice in Wonderland?”. Post your comments too. Earlier Post Sudhir Kumar should help Lalu recalculating Rs 90,000 cr surplus (July 13, 2009) Action & Appointments a) A Didar Singh, a 1976 batch Punjab cadre IAS, presently Member (Finance), National Highways Authority of India, has been appointed as secretary in the ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in the vacancy of K Mohandas, a 1974 batch Kerala cadre IAS who is the new shipping secretary. b) Pradeep Kumar Pujari, a 1981 batch Gujarat cadre IAS has been appointed as Executive Director (North) in the Food Corporation of India (joint secretary level), under the department of food and public distribution.

Sudhir Kumar should help Lalu recalculating Rs 90,000 crore railway surplus

SUDHIR Kumar, influential 1982-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer and ex-OSD to former railway minister Lalu Prasad should help his former boss re-calculating accounts of the ministry in the last five years after current railway minister Mamata Banerjee questioned the claims of Rs 90,000 crore surplus funds in the interim budget presented by Mr Prasad before the Lok Sabha elections. Mr Kumar who co-authored the book titled “Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways Transformed”, wrote in details about the secret of railways’ success to position itself as a cash-rich organization. In fact, Ms Banerjee, who is now coming out with a white paper on funds with the railways, said that a corpus of just Rs 8,361 crore remained after expenditure of Rs 13,600 crore on account of Pay Commission award last year and Rs 2,600 crore this year. The issue became complicated further when Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had refused to give Mr Prasad, his former cabinet colleague, a clean chit and said the proposed white paper promised by the railway minister would uncover the reality and clear the air. Significantly, Lalu Prasad who is known for his political sharpness and wits, is not a mathematical wizard to find the railway books right. Nor will railway officers who were forced to take a backseat during his tenure would come forward to help the Bihar strongman by doing some accounting wonders! In fact, a number of railways officials were then perturbed by the fact that an IAS officer, Mr Kumar, was virtually running the show as Mr Prasad gave him a free hand to initiate any policy change and micro-manage everything to make Indian railways profitable. Mr Kumar was then so powerful that many Rail Bhawan officials including railway board members became virtual rubber stamps endorsing Mr Kumar’s line of strategy. Also, Mr Kumar remembered by heart many of the accounting figures and played a crucial role setting yearly target for the railways. Significantly, the Indian Railways with 1.4 million employees is one of the very few government arms which are not headed by IAS officers.