In the last expansion of the UPA-II Cabinet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 17, 2013, inducted eight new faces in his ministry. Mallikarjun Kharge, 70, who held the Labour and Employment portfolio, took over the Railways ministry.
Pawan Kumar Bansal will be presenting his first railway budget on February 26, 2013. Ahead of his first rail budget, Bansal had hiked fares from 2 to 10 paise per km in various classes from January 21.
Dinesh Trivedi presented the railway budget on March 14, 2012, but resigned just a few days later. His proposal for a hike in train fares had upset his party's leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
John Mathai presented the first Railway budget for independent India. He later became the finance minister and had also presented the Union Budget in 1949 and 1950.
In 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru appointed Lal Bahadur Shastri as the Railways and Transport Minister. When he took the charge as a Railway Minister, the Indian railway had been badly disrupted due to partition of the country. He worked effortlessly to get through the difficulties. Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned from Railways in 1956, owning moral responsibility for a railway accident.
C.K. Jaffer Sharief served as Union Minister of Railways from June 1991 to Oct 1995.
Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan had presented railway budget in 1996 and 1997.
Nitish Kumar, the current chief minister of Bihar served as railway minister in two stints, presenting the railway budget in 1998, and 1999, and then later in 2003 and 2004.
Lalu Prasad Yadav who served as railway minister from 2004 to 2009 presented five railway budgets during his tenure. He is credited with turning around the Indian Railways back into profit.
Mamata Banerjee presented her fifth Budget as a railway minister in 2011. In her earlier stint as railway minister, she presented the rail budget in 2000 and 2001.
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