In a first of its kind initiative, the Railway Ministry has invited suggestions from the general public on various issues pertaining to the preparation of this year’s Railway Budget. So far different Ministries and departments have sought advices and done consultations with various organisations or groups and associations but this will be the first where individuals can suggest their bit on Rail Budget 2015-2016.
The citizens can submit their suggestions online on the official website of Ministry of Railways. A senior railway official said that the suggestions may be varied railway subjects which include computerisation, electrical, electrification of lines, finance, foot over bridges, freight, Infrastructure, innovative ideas and railway lines, Road Over/Under Bridges, crime prevention, safe running of trains/Disaster Management, tourism related services, new trains, extension of trains, augmentation of trains, frequency of trains, pantry cars & catering etc..
“Indian Railways welcomes such initiatives from the civil society and it proposes to engage citizens to participate in its other key objectives also like cleanliness, improving civic sense and together making Indian Railways the best rail network in the world. Such initiatives will help Railways come closer to citizens and better understand challenges that the citizens experience and ensure that most important areas from a citizen perspective find place in Railways’ priorities,” said a railway official.
In addition, Citizens can also give their complaints, general suggestions and feedback online on the same website of the Ministry of Railways round the year which can be tracked also online. The Indian Railways is already connecting with the people through its social media platforms namely Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has already been emphasizing on the need to make Indian Railways citizen oriented by seeking inputs from them on various aspects on railways to improve services in Railways.
In a similar move, a community social media platform called ‘localCircles’ has voluntarily offered to be a partner with Indian Railways to provide collective citizen inputs on various aspects pertaining to railways. The circle “Make Railways Better” has been generating number of inputs based on the feedback from their large 70,000 over strong online citizen community on various subjects like budget, cleanliness, safety, reservation systems, productivity, food etc. ‘Make Railways Better’ citizen community has so far submitted collective citizen inputs on safety, cleanliness, improving railway reservation system, maximizing revenue, improving catering, improving productivity to Railway Ministry.