What compells Rail Minister Lalu Yadav to say "no privatisation".

“Lalu denies railway privatisation plans”, but pray why? Just because there has been a turn around which is credited more to his sagacity and less to the fast paced growth of Indian Economy, it does not mean that there is no scope for betterment or that there are no risks that the process of improvement and growth may get derailed.

It is common knowledge that the Indian Railways is facing a severe crunch in terms of resources needed for acquisition and renewal of rolling stock as well as the renewal of tracks. In fact, apart from the financial crunch the other factor is lack of capacity of the various ancillary units engaged in providing coaches, wagons etc.

For example look at the Mumbai suburban system- due to severe paucity of rakes, an important suburban segment of Vashi-Thane is served by a single rake.
Steps were initiated for provision of extra rakes only after the users resorted to agitation. Now, just think of the situation, the infrastructure related to this segment was created with financial partnership of CIDCO and then the railways could not increase the frequency because they were running short of rakes. In this scenario, I do not understand the reasons for going into denial mode. The project cost of Vashi-Thane rail may have run upto almost Rs. 400 crores or even more, off course two third of that must have been provided by CIDCO, but the fact remains that this segment remains underutilized because railways have not bee able to provide more that one rake. The cost of one rake, that too the latest one (Stainless Steel Body) may be less than Rs. 20 crores.

Perhaps, on reading this post (although chances are extremely dim), the Rail Minister may become livid in his own inimitable way and say that Indian Railways is not broke to the extent that it is not able to invest a few hundred crore rupees in new rakes; and well, that brings us to the other part of the story – the Indian Raiway may certainly have the cash to do that but the units (basically Govt. and / or Railways owned) engaged in manufacturing such rakes and coaches etc. may simply not be able to cope with the ever increasing demand.

When it is well known that the process of partnership with private players is already underway through various schemes like “own your wagons”, leasing of space in the brake vans etc., then why the denial? Is it just an exercise to impress the Left Parties and his original constituency comprising of largely illiterate, ignorant and gullible people?

It is my personal opinion that Shri Laloo Yadav is way too smart not to understand what ails the Indian Railways and from where the bottle-necks may emerge. He is just posturing for the sake of being politically correct in his chosen personal political space; it is a political compulsion; but there lies the catch. The apostle may not believe what he is preaching to be the gospel truth as he knows the truth but his followers being gullible, ignorant and illiterate may fall for his rhetoric and then the apostle may be forced to start believing the untruth that he had been preaching as the truth. Well this is the risk.

The only way out is to acknowledge the bottle-necks in the infrastructure development process of the Indian Railways and find ways and means to ensure that the pace of growth is not encumbered due to resource crunch. The need of the hour is to formulate a long term strategic plan and then follow it in the best possible manner. Otherwise, the train of improvement in the performance of Indian Railways may see the chain being pulled.



Post Script:
Next time when you wait for fifteen minutes at one of the Harbour Line Stations in Navi-Mumbai, pray that partnerships with private parties take place so that more rakes are made available. This is the only way that frequency of trains can be increased. It may also lead to commencement of local train service on Panvel – Karjat Section.

Thank God - girl got polio in city, not UP

This is in continuation of the post about “Resurgence of Polio”. It seems, at-least for the time being, that scientific temper has prevailed over the cynicism that has been the defining element of the activity that goes by the name of administration and polity. The news report in the Times of India announces that “Girl got polio in city, not UP”. Perhaps, now the focus will be back on Polio and the redundant debate regarding the complicity of Uttar Pradesh will hopefully abate.

The CITY must look towards improving the lot of the poor section of its population. Unless the targeted population is primed and made receptive towards knowledge assimilation and they are suitably empowered, nothing much is going to change.

Keeping up the good work to serve better- KEM Hospital

KEM Hospital is a premier institute – one of the biggest municipal hospitals in Mumbai. The scale of operation is humungous and one needs to see the behemoth in operation to believe the kind of yeoman service that such institutions provide to the teeming masses.

One look at the Casualty Section, even at the unearthly hours beyond midnight, gives the impression of being in the midst of unabated activity, somewhat akin to CST Station during rush hours. As an attendant of a seriously ill relative,I had an opportunity to witness the proceedings from close quarters, and the lasting impression has been the display of extreme efficiency by the hospital staff. No doubt the place does not enthuse the patients and their attendants with the feel good feelings like that of the carefully and aesthetically designed interiors of the Corporate Hospitals, but when it comes to no nonsense and affordable medical care (mostly free or at a very low cost), there is certainly no compromise. And, well this is what matters to most of our countrymen save and except the upper-classes and wannabe upper-classes.

Well, I did have a few grouses. Number one is the utter lack of cleanliness in the hospital premises and then lack of maintenance (of the civil structure) is all too conspicuous to miss even at 3 AM in the morning. Any way, these problems could be primarily due to lack of due diligence on the part of the housekeeping staff and more than that, perhaps, due to abject paucity of funds. The other pertinent point was the utter lack of imagination on the part of the Hospital Administration in dealing with the changing world. I was aghast to know, that the Hospital Administration had wholly banned the exercise of charging a mobile phone battery through any of the many idle power outlets available within the premises. This kind of attitude is what gets my goat. I intend to bring up this matter with the Hospital Authorities and to that end an open letter follows:-

To,
The Director,
King Edward Memorial Hospital,
Parel, Mumbai.


Sir,
Sub: Lack of facility for charging mobile phones in the wards

I invite your kind attention to the above mentioned subject with reference to my experience at the hospital.

Before delving on the captioned subject, please allow me to narrate my first hand experience as a relative of a seriously ill patient. My cousin had to be rushed to your hospital. She, being a patient suffering from various ailments concerning unstable Hemoglobin level and also having tested positive for Hepatitis ‘C’ had a sudden attack of breathlessness and on recommendation of the Doctors at Navi-Mumbai had to be rushed to the KEM Hospital in a cardiac ambulance. The logic was that she had been under the treatment of the Hematologist at the KEM Hospital and that service of a competent Hematologist was purportedly not available at Navi-Mumbai.

I must congratulate you and all concerned that the quality of medical attention and the promptness with which the patient was received in the Emergency Section of your hospital was just awesome. Moreover during the night, I was witness to umpteen numbers of evidently grievously ill patients being brought in the Emergency Section in a virtually continuous stream. The patients were from all strata of the society, and, to the credit of your staff i.e, predominantly young doctors, the care being provided appeared, atleast to my untrained eyes, first rate, and definitely devoid of any bias towards the patients’ social or financial standing. This was the first opportunity for me to witness the functioning of a Municipal Hospital in its full glory and well, it may remain etched in my memory for the rest of my life. The yeoman service that your organization is providing to the suffering humanity is great and I believe that it is so, despite several constraints that may have been imposed upon your organization by virtue of being in the midst of a developing country with all the attendant tribulations of limited resources.

Now coming to the point, you may wonder why I should have the audacity nay temerity to point out a seemingly pointless issue regarding the non-availability of mobile phone charging facility at your Hospital. Well, I am not at all intrigued by the lack of the facility; rather I was taken aback when I came to know of the vehemence with which the act of charging the mobile phone through any of the electrical outlets available within your premises is forbidden. It seems there is a penalty of Rs.2000/= imposed on any person (i.e, a patient or his/her relative / attendant) who is discovered charging the mobile phone.

I fervently believe that no one has brought forth the implications of this rule but I hope you will be able to understand the same when it is made sufficiently clear to you. I hope that you will appreciate that the mental and emotional well being of the patient is extremely important and you will also appreciate that when a patient is admitted in a hospital, it is almost never by choice but almost always due to compelling medical reasons and the situation puts the whole family of the patient in stress. The stress is not only due to the uncertainty of cure but also due to various logistics related problems which get considerably amplified in a megacity like Mumbai. In this situation the advent of the era of cheap telecommunication has not only been a stress buster but it is also a force multiplier. In these circumstances, prohibition in the use of your electrical outlets for the purpose of charging the phones can not be justified on any ground. If the cost of charging is to be considered, please understand that it is negligible and may be less than a paisa per phone per hour (typical mobile phone batteries are rated at less than a watt/hr i.e, 1000mvah). In fact, you may be aware that mobile phone charging facility is provided free of cost in many long distance trains, Volvo busses, at Airports etc.

The negative impact of the prohibition is to be seen to be believed. There are numerous small shops and establishment in the vicinity of the hospital which provide the services of charging the mobile phone batteries, but will you believe it – at the cost of ten rupees per phone. Try to see it in a proper perspective, an operative profit of one million percent is available to such establishments due to an absolutely uncalled for prohibition at your end.

This is not to request you to just lift the retrograde prohibition on the act of charging the mobile phone but to go several steps ahead in the right direction by providing the facility for charging the mobile phones at several convenient locations. The cost would be negligible both in terms of the infrastructure as well as energy. Moreover if you evince interest there will be hordes of mobile operators running behind you to not only sponsor the facilities, but to give you royalties for allowing to use the infrastructure provided for the facility as platform for advertising their networks. Just give it a try. It will be a service to society and may also garner some extra revenue for your organization.

This is the way to go.

P.S.- The corporate hospitals may already be in the process of providing wi-fi access within their premises. But well that may be another story about the great divide between the haves and have-nots.

Resurgence of Polio - unanswered socio-economic issues

Reading the news about the so called resurgence of Polio has raised many questions. The questions are not only about the scientific / technical issues. I have no doubt that the medical fraternity will have the required the skills to mange the scientific and technical part of the problem but what seems impossible to overcome is parochial mindset of the powers that be, who seem to be hell bent on extracting political mileage out of this essentially apolitical issue.

The other issue which comes to my mind is the huge socio-economic gap between the living conditions of the so called middle class people and the masses. And please bear in mind the basic contributory factor in the transmission of Polio Virus is poor sanitation. [Polio is transmitted primarily through the ingestion of material contaminated with the virus found in stool (poop). Not washing hands after using the bathroom and drinking contaminated water are common culprits in the transmission of the disease.] Whatever little I have known and seen about the abysmal conditions of slums in Mumbai, I do not subscribe to the view that sanitary conditions can be worse than this, even in the most backward villages of U.P and Bihar. Who knows, the outbreak of polio in Uttar Pradesh could be because of the poor sanitary conditions in Mumbai Slums than the other way round. The best recourse would be to concentrate on the eradication of Polio and keep the blame game at bay, at-least for the time being.

The resurgence of Polio in Mumbai, at-least until now, appears to be limited to the slums but it may not take long when it decides to become socially and economically upwardly mobile. It is needless to mention that the whole lot of household workers (maids, cooks, servants, drivers etc.) employed by the so called upper and upper middle class households reside in slums; in such cases, the transmission of infectious diseases may not respect any economic or social barrier.

The health ministry mandarins must look towards the resurgence of Polio in an apolitical manner and then, and only then they will be able to set the rudder in the right direction. As far as improvement in the sanitation levels of the masses living in the slums is considered, now that the Slum Rehabiliation Exercise in the present form has proven itself to be a dud, a different approach with emphasis on social empowerment is required. With social empowerment, willingness for knowledge assimilation may take place and then things may improve. In this context, my contention is that in place of providing the infrastructure and then giving instructions for its use and maintaenance, it could be a better option to prepare the teeming masses for being receptive towards knowledge and then empower them to have a decisive authority in designing the needed infrastructure for better living conditions.

The current approach is towards the eradication of Polio by way of hundred percent inoculation of the target population. This can only be termed as one-dimensional approach and can never be effective beyond a point. A better way would be to supplement this immunization approach with improvement of the sanitation level and for that the society has to prepare itself.

Public memory is dangerously short otherwise an apt example is the management of Plague epidemic at Surat. Let us hope, we are able to draw some lessons.

P.S. It seems that some kind of herbal cure is also available but due diligence from the authorities for bringing it into the market is wanting. Let us hope that this episode of resurgence of polio spurs the authorities to try and usher in an effective cure.

Back in business

For an extended period there was no activity on this blog.

Well there were many reasons but the primary reason was the frustration over the extremely tenuous link that could be established through the Reliance Cell Phone to connect to the net.

Anyway that is history. Now with a proper broadband connection we are back in business.

Stay tuned.