Financial performance best ever in history of Railways: Lalu

As railway minister Mamata Banerjee tabled a white paper on functioning of the ministry in parliament, her predecessor Lalu Prasad today claimed that financial performance and internal resource generation during his tenure between 2004 and 2009 was the best ever in Indian Railways and no one could dispute it.

The plan investment dividend payment and bank balance as per the white paper showed beyond doubt that the Railways had cash surplus as it paid dividend of over Rs20,700 crore, Prasad told PTI here.

"If there was no cash surplus, from where was the dividend paid. How were plan investments of nearly Rs57,000 crore made from internal generation?" he asked.

Prasad claimed that the financial performance registered a ‘historic improvement’ primarily because rate of growth in traffic earnings was substantially more than rate of growth in working expenses during his tenure.