Shorthand Dictation 80 Words per minute “ Railway Gague ” , Test 5 Minutes with 5 Minutes Audio Dictation, Shorthand Outline and Text Matter. Test 23

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If you SCAN the history of the railways in this country, you will see that it was the Presidency/ towns- Bombay, Madras and Calcutta—that determined the PATTERN or our railways as well as of our industrial and economic growth./ The British, when they landed in this country, established trading centres called forts.  In Chennai it was Fort St. George;/ in Kolkata it was Fort St. Williams and in Mumbai it was merely a Fort and there was one/ in Surat also.  It is these trading establishments which determined the pattern of the government, the pattern of administration and every (100) other the railways, they established the industries, they located their armies with reference/ to these three Presidency towns.  This idea of the Presidency towns determining the pattern of our social structure, industrial advancement/ and the system of our railways still persists.  That is the mental LAG that is HAMPERING the VISION of the/ Planning Commission, the Railway Board and the Railways Ministry.

          Sir, once I happened to travel from London to Rome by/ train.  Another time I had to travel from Moscow to Leningrad by train.  Nowhere did I find on the continent (200) of Europe lines of varying breadth. It is all a uniform GAUGE. So it is in Russia— it may be/ 6 ft. there.  In America, in every industrially advanced country, you find that the gauge is uniform.  This very country/ which ruled us, namely, the United Kingdom, had inside its border a uniform gauge, bu they INFLICTED three systems of/ gauge on India.  They thought that would PERPETUATE what is called their  domination, or in the negative sense that/ it would IMPEDE the industrial and economic growth of India.  Secondly, it would make India always the customer and purchaser (300) of line ad locomotives and ROLLING STOCK from the United Kingdom.  In the old days, I am told, it is/ the Government which built the broad-gauge line and is it is the private companies that too, to this METRE gauge/ and the narrow gauge.  Though they may not have had the DISTINCTION of private and public sector in view when, / it now appears that what the so-called public sector then did has been good and what the private sector then did has been to our disadvantage.  I would appeal to these agencies, to introduce a uniform gauge throughout India. (400)