OVER the past few years the Indian Railways have been taking various measures in the name of streamlining the system, achieving more productivity and reducing expenses. These measures include a drastic reduction in manpower even in these areas that are intimately connected with the running of trains and with safety. This, naturally, means denial of additional manpower to meet the ever-increasing workload in the railways because of the introduction of additional trains and assets.

The other steps taken by the authorities are --- getting the maintenance of tracks, equipment, etc, executed through contractors; off-loading of many works to private trade; keeping the capacity of the railway’s production units and workshops idle; and getting most of the materials required for the running of trains, maintenance of rakes, etc, from private companies.

All this has contributed to the unsafe conditions in railways, with accidents occurring with monotonous regularity all over Indian Railways. Because of inadequate manpower and shortage of rolling stock, the maintenance and overhauling schedules are not being adhered to. This again is a factor that has made rail journey unsafe. All this has also put unbearable workload on the available staff.

Further, the government recently reduced the interest rate on provident fund holdings of the employees. The government is also seriously considering changing the pension scheme and throwing the workers at the mercy of the moneybags and speculators.

However, even this was not considered enough. To achieve "better results," the government appointed the Rakesh Mohan committee for railways restructuring. The committee has recommended that the Railway Board be scrapped and replaced by an Indian Railways Executive Board (IREB) comprising members from the government, railways, private sector and academia.

The committee is headed by Rakesh Mohan who was the Chief Economic Advisor to the prime minister of India and knows nothing about the railways industry. This gentleman has recommended various steps in the name of improving and expanding the industry which, if implemented, will in fact ruin the industry. Let us have a cursory look at the Rakesh Mohan committee’s recommendations.

1) End of the Railway Board and its replacement by an Indian Railways Executive Board (IREB) comprising members from the government, railways, private sector and academia.

1. The government would appoint members on the proposed IREB and Indian Railway Regulatory Authority (IRRA).
2. Railway must be corporatised into an Indian Railway Corporation (IRC) with the government’s role being limited to setting policy directions.
3. New managers will be inducted, and will be known as agents.
4. The IREB will consist of 5 members initially, headed by a chairperson who will be the chief executive officer of railways. He will be appointed through a global selection process.
5. The five core businesses of the railways --- freight transport, passenger transport, suburban transport, fixed infrastructure and other infrastructure --- will be headed by chief operating officers. Besides, there will be two vice-presidents for human resources and finance/planning.

As a whole, the set up of Indian railways will be subverted.

2. End of railway budget.

3) Privatisation of all railway production units manufacturing electric and diesel locos, coaches, wheel and axle workshops.

4) Privatisation of all maintenance workshops which are employing thousands of employees. On Central Railway itself, there are workshops at Matunga, Parel, Byculla, Manmad, Bhusaval, Bhopal and Gwalior, employing respectively 7000, 6000, 1200, 1400, 1300, 1500 and 600 workers. Similar workshops are there with on all the nine zonal railways.

5) Printing presses are to be sold out. These printing presses are printing tickets, money receipts, valuable documents, time tables and all forms and books which are meant for use by the railways and the public. The Central Railway’s press is at Byculla, with 1300 employees.

6) Selling of all railway quarters which are occupied by railway employees, mostly belonging to essential departments, lowest strata, etc. The Rakesh Mohan committee has estimated that Rs 20,000 crore could be fetched by selling out these quarters. What will happen to the essential staff like drivers, guards, station masters and lower class of railway employees, namely Safaiwallis, Safaiwallas, Khalasis, Hamals, etc, who stay in these quarters and perform round the clock duties? How can they afford to pay the inevitable huge increase in the rent rates and where can they go if they cannot afford the increased rents?

7) Privatisation of maintenance work such as station sanitation, maintenance of railway tracks and railway buildings, electrical maintenance, maintenance of wagon cleaning, water supply to passengers, bed-roll supply in the trains, etc, and several day to day activities which are being done by regular railway employees in vital and non-vital services.

8) Privatisation of commercial activities like catering services, goods booking, parcel booking, computer reservation, etc.

9) Privatisation of railway hospitals. There are big railway hospitals having specialised treatment arrangements for all major diseases at the headquarters of all the nine zonal railways, several railway hospitals at the divisional headquarters, inside workshops and several other locations. They are open not only for railway employees and their family members, but for public also. The committee has recommended the sale of all these hospitals. As in the case of railway quarters, the sale of railway's departmental medical services would mean a heavy increase in the medical expenses for railwaymen. These two steps, i e sale of railway quarters and medical services, will impoverish the railwaymen, at whose cost rich builders and landlords will earn huge profits.

10) Privatisation of schools and colleges. The Indian Railways run a large number of schools and colleges for the benefit of railwaymen’s children, considering the difficulties of the railwaymen posted in locations where their children cannot easily get access to educational facilities. The committee has now recommended to privatise them. This will take education beyond the reach of railwaymen’s children.

11) The committee has also recommended that Indian Railways should end all concessions and social services provided to the public, such as concessions given to seasonal ticket-holders, senior citizens, those physically handicapped, students, children, artists, freedom fighters, etc. It has also suggested to stop issuing passes to retired railway employees.

These recommendations, which are under consideration of the government, are unacceptable to the unions because their implementation would destroy the railway system and cause miseries to the railwaymen and railway users.

The unions’ objections to these recommendations are based on hard logic and facts, as can be seen from the following.

Indian Railways is one of the largest and best-run networks in the world. It is a self-reliant industry. It has its own manufacturing workshops for electric and diesel locos, coaches, wheel and axles, bridges, signalling and telecommunication equipment, etc. It has also big printing presses for printing all kinds of tickets, forms, books, etc. Indian Railways has been functioning in a sound manner and making profit all these years.

Not only this, the Indian Railways has been taking care of various social obligations such as providing railway lines for remote areas even while incurring heavy losses. It has been paying dividends to the extent of Rs 4,000 crore every year, providing concessions for senior citizens, students, suburban train travellers, freedom fighters, physically handicapped, artists, patients of serious diseases, etc. It has been introducing more and more trains to meet the demands of the travelling public from time to time. It has been carrying relief materials to areas affected by natural calamities, free of charge. It has also been promptly transporting war materials and military personnel at low rates during wars. Various commodities of use by common masses are transported at concessional rates. The Indian Railways has been and is doing many other things in the interest of the country and the people. The railways reach even remote areas in service of the people.

In developed countries the governments subsidise the railways to the extent of 60 per cent of the revenue earning. Apart from this, they bear the full cost of the construction charges of railway lines that do not fetch any profit. These governments also pay interest-free loans for construction of normal railway lines. But nothing of this kind is done in India. It is another thing that the Indian Railways has yet been making profits.

What will happen if the Rakesh Mohan committee’s recommendations are implemented?

First of all, if the manufacturing workshops are privatised, all the items like the electric and diesel locos, coaches of all types and several other items, which are manufactured at most competitive rates by them will have to be purchased from the profit making concerns at exhorbitant rates, more than four times more rates or so. This will have considerable repercussions on fare and freight charges. Cost of everything will go up. The end of railway printing presses that print tickets, money receipts, value-bearing books, etc, will cause any amount of mischief and manipulation. Privatisation of commercial activities will lead to serious erosion of the railway’s earnings and also cause increase in various service charges. Privatisation of catering services means an end of reasonably priced services to the ordinary rail passengers. Similarly, the handing ever of almost all maintenance services to contractors will lead to an all round deterioration of services. Moreover, the contractisation of regular services is against the Contract Regulation Act. This will lead to serious exploitation of labour. Railwaymen will also land in serious trouble if the railway quarters, hospitals, schools, colleges, etc, are sold out. This will have a telling effect on the railwaymen’s performance.

This biggest industry of India, which has the capacity of recruiting 50,000 employees every year, will find no scope for any recruitment; rather there will be unimaginable reduction of workforce.

Withdrawal of concessions will mean that a suburban seasonal ticket-holder will have to pay 20 times more for his seasonal ticket. A cancer patient will have to pay full fare and cannot have any attendant with him. A senior citizen, sportsperson, artists or school student too will have to pay full fare.

Further, if the Rakesh Mohan committee recommendations are implemented, all the 44 big workshops, small sheds for repairs or maintenance, production units like CLW, ICP, DLW wheel and axle plants, RCP and DCW will cease to be the railway property. There would be wholesale retrenchment in these establishments, and those few who will be in service will lose all their facilities and job security. This is what happened to the BALCO workers. The consequence will be more accidents, more loss of property, more casualities.

The crisis in the Indian Railways started in 1991, with the new economic policy of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, (LPG) brought in by the then finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The poorer sections were neglected as a result of these policies. Former railway minister Mamata Banerjee was of the view that upper class passengers should be given more facilities because, according to her, they pay more to the railways than the hugely subsidised lower class passengers. This trend of protecting the rich and exploiting the poor is the main challenge to be fought by the entire working class and poorer sections unitedly.

This is not the first time that the government has tried privatisation. Industries like steel were the targets earlier. After railways, other services too will be attacked. This is the inevitable result of the LPG policies, and in such a situation only the rich can prosper. The poor cannot even survive.

As far as the railways are concerned, privatisation would mean scrapping of uneconomic lines. No service would be run if profit is not assured. This may also mean withdrawal of suburban services during non-peak hours because then the trains would not be fully occupied.

However, privatisation is no solution to the financial crunch in the railways. The solution lies in the formation of a national transport policy that would ensure that railway traffic is not syphoned off to road transport to the benefit of big private transport agencies. The solution lies in fully subsidising the railways for the concessions extended by it.

Representatives of labour should be associated at all levels of the administration, including policy making, to ensure that the railways do not become the pocket burrow of vested interests and really serve the nations and the common man. The argument that privatisation would make the railways more efficient is spurious. This is proved by the case of the Modern Food Industry, which was a profit making concern when run as a public sector undertaking and was totally ruined after privatisation.

The Rakesh Mohan committeee recommendations are not the concern of the railwaymen only. It is the concern of the country’s entire working class and all the unions who must have to put a united fight against these recommendations. In fact, a people’s movement has to be launched against them. The issue to be decided is whether the railway industry must continue as a public utility service or converted into a purely profit making industry.

1). Route length 62,759 km; out of this, 14,261 km are electrified.

2). Steam engines 56, diesel engines 4,651, electric engines 2,810, coaches 32,302, EMU coaches 4,188, other coaches 4,838, wagons 2,44,419, stations 6,867, capital investment 29,655 crore 31 lakh rupees, railway employees 15,77,000.

3) Other particulars: Gross profit Rs 2735.67 crore; dividend Rs 1889.78 crore; net profit Rs 845.89 crore; freight traffic 478.2 million tonnes; passenger traffic 4585 millions.