Last week, the rooms of Rail Board Members were locked by 7 pm — an unusual occurrence as, in past years, formulating the Railway Budget used to be an exercise that led to hour-long presentations and mounds of documents.

After the Rail Budget’s merger with the Union Budget this year, some railway officials who would otherwise have been stuck in Rail Bhawan were out for a stroll, while others who were used to staying back nights working on the budget said they were going home early.

Relaxed, yet worried “We gave the papers to the Finance Ministry a week early and relaxed. We had no sleepless nights this time,” said an official.

While the mood in Rail Bhawan was relaxed, on digging a little deeper, one could sense a bit of confusion, with some hoping that the Finance Minister would take care of the mounting expenditures and flattening revenues.

Several documents, including the explanatory memorandum and the pink book for the project-wise expenditure — that used to be made public on rail budget day — have been delayed.

“Earlier, we had to submit the documents to Parliament much earlier. This year, we didn't have to,” said a source. Many officials said they did not know much, apart from the points made in the “three minutes or so” dedicated to the railways portion in the Finance Minister’s Budget speech.

“We are not indicating the specific works; those will be mentioned in the detailed demand for grants to be presented on February 3,” Shahzad Shah, Financial Commissioner, said. “Last year, the projections went haywire — we were too optimistic. This year we have tried to be more realistic,” he said.

Asked about fund balances, he said: “The situation is bad. We have to meet all our expenditures.”

Prodded further on the plan size for the current fiscal, a source said: “We are sticking to the ₹1.21 lakh crore for revised estimates as of now....We may end up with ₹1.10 or ₹1.12 lakh crore.”

Union concerns Meanwhile, the national transporter, whose largest outlay is on staff salaries and pensions, faces concerns from railway unions.

The All India Railwaymen Federation, the largest union in the organisation, quoted a Railway Board letter saying “it has been decided by the Board that supervisors working in all safety categories in erstwhile Grade Pay of ₹4,200 and above should not be office-bearers of a trade union after March 31, 2017.

However, there is no bar on their being enrolled as members of the union”.

This letter is against the Trade Union Act as well as ILO Convention 1987, which gives the workers the “Right to Organise”, they said, terming it “a blatant example of unusual interference of the administration in the union/federations’ affairs that can be treated as an unfair labour practice.”

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