Reiterating the need to make the Railways independent of political pressure, rail unions have broadly opposed the proposal to restructure the organisation.
The All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) and National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) have forwarded their views to the committee headed by Bibek Debroy, which is looking into restructuring of Indian Railways.
“Increasing fares by even 7 per cent each year through 10 years of the UPA regime would have resulted in additional revenue of ₹1,36,000 crore,” said Shiva Gopal Mishra, General Secretary, AIRF.
On the pending projects valued at over ₹4 lakh crore, Mishra said only financially viable projects should be taken up.
Quoting the Railway Safety Review Committee, 1998, AIRF said that the working of the Railways was closely allied to the Armed Forces …hence it cannot be treated like other civilian departments.
Both the unions have opposed a proposal that calls for transfer of officials between Railways and other departments.
On separating the operations from policy making, AIRF said, “Operation and policy making of the Indian Railways are already separated. Operation is undertaken by the Divisional and Zonal Railway Administrations, while policy is framed by the Railway Board as per guidance of the Railway Minister, Parliament and Government of India. This procedure needs to be allowed to stay.”
Seeking higher Government funding, AIRF pointed out that the Government had enough funds, as it had provided exemptions on corporate income tax, waived bank loans of ₹2,04,549 crore, including ₹1,45,303 crore waiver to corporate houses during 2001-2013.
“In the name of reorganisation, separating policy-making from operations may lead to chaos. Those in-charge of operations are the base authorities to make policy for the system to function without hassles. Policy-making needs to be in the hands of operational in-charges, who can correctly forecast the future requirement of assets, inputs and infrastructure for making the system more dynamic,” said NFIR.