Lalu deluged with railway complaints on his blog

New Delhi: Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's blog is sure attracting attention, but it appears to look more and more like a railway complaint box.

Lalu drew 68 responses to his latest post on www.mypopkorn.com on Monday. And although his views centred on inflation and the Gujjar violence in Rajasthan, the responses so far have had nothing to do with those issues. Instead, the blog has turned to be a platform for people to air complaints about railway services - be it the quality of food served, cleanliness, or security. There are also requests for trains on new routes.

In his latest blog, the railway minister has described as "inevitable" though "unfortunate" the soaring prices of essential commodities - the most worrying point for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

The minister, who is widely credited with transforming the economic fortunes of the railways, said trains continued to provide affordable means of travel for the common man. "Though the operating cost of the Indian Railways has gone up, we have not raised rail fares; on the contrary, we slashed the rates," says the blog post.

He also had advice for the government on the implementation of schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREG) and the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS). Nevertheless, he could not help commenting that the "poor man knows how to sustain himself in the backdrop of price rise".

While some like Shashank Trivedi agreed with him on the fuel price hike, most others took the railway minister's blog as a platform to express their woes.

Kumar Kartveerjeet Sharav sought improved train services from New Delhi to Bihar and Jharkhand and A.K. Sahu sought new trains in western Orissa.

Bankim Parikh narrated his family's ordeal at the Jammu railway station. "Our train was 11 hours delayed. The station was horribly crowded but I could see only one porter. Security personnel did not allow passengers to move baggage along the ramps but forced them to lug it over the 30 odd stairs. Can you look into the situation?"

The text of the blog can also be read and responded to in Hindi. To his first blog post, which was on the Gujjar violence and the effect it had on the railways, Lalu received 281 comments.

He has blamed Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for the Gujjar protests during which Indian Railways lost at least Rs5 million (Dh428,858) a day.