Any takers, please?

Railway Minister Mukul Roy may have been pressuring the bureaucrats in his ministry to find alternative means of raising funds, after he rolled back passenger fare hike mooted by his predecessor. But the minister has ready ideas when it comes to tackling the 14,896 unmanned railway crossings. In a recent meeting with the Railway Board, Roy proposed linking the railway crossings elimination initiative with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), considering the huge cost it involves. In his view, the infrastructure needed to eliminate these crossings, such as road over bridges, etc, could be part of “asset creation” under the NREGS and thereby, the railway could save on the labour cost — as labour could be paid through the rural development ministry’s NREGS. He is also planning to advocate to his fellow Members of Parliament that they should chip in with their Member of Parliament Local Area Development funds to finance these conversions. Will these innovative ideas find some takers?