GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

THE RAILWAY L"IDUSTRY AND CCMMERCE OF 1~D1A 195
contribution of Rs. 300,000,000 at the rate of some
Rs. 60,000,000 p.a. (d. Rs. 57,357,000 in 1930-31).
The Railway Board has since then been functioning
in a thoroughly unshackled manner so far as finances are
concerned. But it has to be observed that its statutory
autocracy has been to a certain extent sought to be
curtailed by the simultaneous establishment of the Standing
Fir.ance Committee of Railways. This is a body of
twelve members, of whom eleven are chosen by the Indian
Legislative Assembly from among themselves. The
twelfth is the chairman. He is likewise a member of the
same assembly, but a government official and nominated
by the Government. And it is to this body of twelve
that the Railway Board has to submit the estimate of
railway expenditures and the demand for grants. It has
belonged to the functions of the Standing Finance Committee
during the last few years to meet several times
a year at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Delhi and other
places. And in order that the estimate and the demand
of the Railway Board could be placed before the Legislative
Assembly this body of twei"e has had occasion to
sanction new appointments, construction of lines and
bridges, rolling stock programmes, remodelling of workshops
and stations, electrification schemes and what not.
Two more institutions have to be mentioned in this
connection as having served to bring the railway administration
under some sort of popular or democratic influence.
The first are the Local Advisory Committees
repr~enting the public on all Goverr..ment-owr..ed lines.
They were first established in 1923-24. In all diHerent
centres taken together these committees held as many as
84 meetings in 1925-26, 92 in 1926-27, 108 in 1927-28,