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Is Laloo Trying to Reform Railway System ?

Clad in a kurta and pyjama, Laloo Prasad Yadav — the new “emperor” of the Railways stepped out of his car at the Patna railway station on Sunday night. Officials were indeed anticipating this surprise attack for sometime now, but they never suspected that it would materialise at this hour and that too on a Sunday night. Naturally, they were caught napping.

Laloo straightaway headed for platform no 1, where the 3112 Dn Lalquila Express had just arrived, running around five hours behind schedule. Laloo went straight to the driver and asked him: “How many times did you stop the train due to chain pulling?” Shivering, the driver said, “Five times Sir.”
“What was the escort party doing?” the minister shot back. “They took no action,” the driver replied.

Fuming with anger, Mr Yadav asked for the Government Railway Police (GRP) inspector. He emerged from behind the crowd and stood in attention. “Why are you hiding? Did you ask the driver at how many places the train was stopped? Your men sit inside the train and harass poor people,” Laloo blasted in one breath.
The GRP inspector somehow managed to speak and said the driver does not tell them about chain pulling. “When he is telling me, why will he not tell you?” Laloo burst out.

Then, Laloo headed for the Station Superintendent’s (Commercial) office. A man clad in a black coat was sitting. Laloo asked him where the superintendent was. The man replied: “I am here Sir.” An amazed minister wanted to know whether he was a TT or a superintendent. The man replied that for the past two days the superintendent had not come and therefore he was looking after his job. “Is he dead?” Laloo wanted to know. “No Sir, he is on leave,” said the man. Laloo directed his men to note down the name of the superintendent.

The Railway Minister sat on the sofa along with a few other partymen as the District Magistrate and some senior police officers stood nearby. Making his way from behind, emerged a railway officer.

He introduced himself as the station manager. “Where were you?” thundered Laloo. “Sir, my duty is up to 8 pm only. I was sleeping in my residence.” “Who is supposed to be in-charge after you?”

“Sir, the SS ( Station Superintendent),” the manager replied. “But here you have made a TT, the superintendent. All of you are defaming Bihar. I will not tolerate all this. Sabko andar kardenge,” (I will put you all behind the bars) declared the minister.

By this time, it was around 11: 45 pm. The Railway Minister then asked about the number of pending cases in the GRP police station and reprimanded the officers for slow progress. Then, he went on to see the cleanliness on platforms and once again it was humiliation time for the railway officials concerned.

At around midnight, he went out of the station when the Danapur, Divisional Railway Manager(DRM) and another senior officer arrived. Laloo Yadav then proceeded to have a closed door meeting with them. And, it went on till late in the night.

Source: Laloo’s night out at Patna station - Deccan Herald

The so called populist bumpkin Laloo seems to be on a spree to transform the Railway. Lets see how long will he go on with this phenomenon. If he can do this consistently until the next elections, he will sure win millions of hearts back across India.