Keeping track

Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi’s remarks during the presentation of the Railway Budget about how Members of Parliament (MPs) are particularly interested in Indian Railways, inundating him with requests, are well supported by the data. Indeed, according to numbers collated by PRS Legislative, New Delhi, the Railway Budget rivals, and sometimes exceeds, the Union Budget in terms of MP interest. The finance ministry got a total of 1,036 questions in the Lok Sabha last year; the railways ministry nearly as much, at 876. And the base of MPs interested in the Railway Budget is much higher than the number interested in the Union Budget: 156 participated in the general discussion on the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha, but only 120 participated in the general discussion on the Union Budget.