'Prof' Lalu sets up Railway Chair at IIM-A

Overwhelmed by the honour of having been invited to lecture at IIM-A on Tuesday, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announced the setting up of a 'Railway Chair' at the country's premier management institute.

The chair, to be funded by the Indian Railways, will undertake research on the railway-related matters, he announced at a media conference after his three-hour interface with the students and faculty.

Donning the 'Professor's cap' lecturing students on the journey of the Indian Railways, from being written-off two years ago to becoming the second largest profit-earning public sector enterprise, Lalu proudly claimed credit for this turnaround, saying it has come about during his tenure.

Yadav, who introduced 'kulhar' immediately after becoming the minister in 2004, on Monday made another grand announcement of setting up 7,500 outlets for farmers at railway stations across the country.

The farmers would be able to distribute and market their produce from these outlets, he added. With 7/11 bomb blasts on Mumbai sub-urban trains on his mind, he said security at railway stations was also on the ministry's priority list, adding close circuit televisions (CCTVs), metal detectors and sniffer dogs would be deployed at all important stations in the country.

The minister did not commit replicating Japan's Bullet Trains in India, saying it is not yet possible to undertake it "as we do not have fencing (on either sides of tracks) and also trains pass through inhabited areas."

He, however, added the experiment of faster trains could be undertaken on a piecemeal basis on some sections.

The minister said he was called names and nobody thought he could turn around the railways' fortunes. He said now that it has happened under his charge, he had been invited by IIM-A.

"It is a proud moment for me to be invited by such a prestigious institute." Asked why he could not bring about a similar turn-around in the fortunes of Bihar he ruled for long, the former Bihar chief minister quipped, "we were suppressed like a goat. . . Bihar had lowest investment and (was) plagued with Naxalism."

Implicitly accepting his role in the change of government in Jharkhand, Lalu said, "We have done it for democracy. . . otherwise there would have been the President's rule."

The railway minister, who came with wife Rabri Devi and children, later left to attend a seminar which is open to the media.

Earlier, the media was not allowed to attend his lecture at the IIM-A.