The Congress on Sunday alleged corruption within the Indian Railways after a latest Proper to Info (RTI) question revealed that the Lucknow division of the Northern Railways spent ₹69.5 lakh between 2020 and 2022 “to catch rats”.
In response to the RTI utility filed by activist Chandrashekhar Gaur, the Lucknow division stated the bills over these two years amounted to round ₹69 lakh and 168 rats had been caught – if equated per rat, it comes out to be about ₹41,000.
Reacting to the RTI reply, Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala took to X and wrote, “Railways spent ₹41,000 and 6 days in catching a rat! By spending a complete of ₹69.40 lakh, 156 rats had been caught in 3 years! That is the situation of the Lucknow area alone.”
“Everywhere in the nation, the ‘rats of corruption’ are selecting individuals’s pockets on daily basis… Consequence: Beneath BJP rule, persons are hit by rampant inflation on daily basis. Even the concession given to the aged in rail fares has been eaten away! Nonetheless, he says – ‘Neither will I eat nor will I allow you to eat ..’ !” he added.
Learn the response to the RTI question
₹23,16,150.84 has been spent annually in the course of the interval from 2019 to 2022 for depots at Lucknow Division for Major based mostly practice year-wise of division in the direction of rodent management.
Yr-wise element of no. of rodents trapped within the earlier 3 years are:
2020-83 Nos.
2021-45 Nos.
2022-40 Nos.
Railways subject clarification
The Lucknow division of Northern Railway issued clarification stating that these actions embody a variety of pest management measures, comparable to utilizing flushing brokers to forestall cockroach infestations, disinfecting practice coaches to discourage rodents, conducting fogging actions, and extra.
“The work is extra of a preventive nature slightly than actively catching rodents. Complete price as talked about within the article of ₹23.2 lakh per 12 months within the complete management of cockroaches, rodents, mattress bugs, mosquitoes additional in all coaches maintained at Lucknow Division,” the rail division stated in an announcement
Contemplating the common of 25,000 coaches addressed annually, this ends in an approximate price of ₹94 per coach for rodent management – “very minimal price contemplating the harm, and destruction which may be attributable to the rodent,” it added.
The Lucknow division additional stated the price of catching one rat represented as ₹41,000 is a “misrepresentation of actuality and distortion of information geared toward harming the repute of Indian Railways”.
No reply on harm by rats
Gaur’s RTI utility had additionally requested in regards to the worth of the harm attributable to the rats. The railways, nevertheless, didn’t present particular particulars, stating that no evaluation of harm had been made.