The PCPSPS includes eminent academics, jurists, erstwhile administrators, trade unionists and social activists. The PCPSPS intends to have in-depth consultations with all stakeholders and people concerned with the process of policy making and those against the government’s decision to monetise, disinvest and privatise public assets/enterprises and produce several sectoral reports before coming out with a final report. This is an interim report of commission

Report 

The recent rail accident in West Bengal involving a freight and passenger train on June 17 has once again highlighted the government’s lack of focus on safety in the Indian Railways. In particular, this accident, and several others in the last year, raise five sets of important issues that point to problems of a systemic nature that have a bearing on railway safety in India:

• The high incidence of signal failures and the lack of clarity to railway staff on the processes to be adopted in such situations
• The failure of Government in resolving the inhuman working conditions of loco pilots.
• The large number of vacancies in the safety category
• The tendency of the Railway authorities at the top to put the blame for any accident on the safety category of workers such as loco pilots, station managers, signal and telecommunications, pointsmen instead of accepting their own responsibility.
• The inordinate delay in the deployment of Kavach, the anti-collision system

Signal Failures

Most of the collisions and accidents in the recent past have been due to Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD) when the signal had failed or had been defective. The recent accident has highlighted the fact that there is utter confusion about the procedure to be followed by loco running staff and other railway workers when signals are defective or do not work. The recent accident as well as the accident in October 2023 occurred because the train drivers and the station masters did not have clear instructions about the procedure to be followed when signals “fail”.

It is startling to note that the incidence of signal equipment failures has not declined in recent years:  54,444 in 2020-21, 65,149 in 2021-22 and 51,888 in 2022-23. The Commission regrets to note that this information is no longer available in the Indian Railways’ bulletin of monthly statistics, marking yet another instance of hiding data from the public when such information is inconvenient to those in power.

Inadequate rest and long working hours for loco pilots are a safety hazard 

The Railways’ own special Task Force on safety noted in 2017 that SPAD often occurs soon after the loco pilots resume duty after home rest. It concluded that this happens because loco pilots have not had adequate rest before reporting for duty. It determined that the large number of vacancies among loco pilots to be the primary reason for their being denied adequate rest.

It is astonishing that in this day and age railway workers still do not get weekly rest as do most workers in organised industry; instead they only get 30 hours rest, once in 10 days. Indeed, in the railways this is termed as “periodical rest”! This Commission endorses the longstanding demand of the railway workers that they be entitled to 30 hours of continuous rest after 16 hours of rest at headquarters four times a month. This is important not only for the health of the loco running staff but also for maintaining safety standards in the Railways. For example, reports indicate that driver of the freight train driver in accident on June 17 had availed rest of 30 hours, but only after finishing four consecutive nights of duty, indicating that he had inadequate rest prior to the accident. Indeed, the Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS) had recommended after an inquiry into the accident at Vizianagaram in October 2023 that loco pilots must not be made to work for more than two consecutive nights.

Another longstanding demand of the loco pilots has been their demand to reduce the length of their working day. Indeed, the Government had, as far back as 1973, conceded to their demand that their working day be limited to 10 hours. However, in the half a century since then, successive governments have dragged their feet on this crucial issue. The problem is particularly serious in the case of loco pilots manning freight trains, which do not follow a regular timetable, resulting in long and unpredictable working hours.

Women loco pilots, who number about 3,000, face an additional burden because they are forced to report for work six months after delivery; they are denied menstrual leave; and they are unable to nurse their children. Strangely, a government that swears by Swachh Bharat, still has not thought it fit to address the problem of lack of toilet facilities in locomotives.

The rules in the Indian Railways classify loco pilots as “continuous” workers and require them to work for 104 hours a week. However, internal circulars issued to loco pilots stipulate that they actually work for an average of more than 125 hours a week. Naturally, this “excess” work has adverse consequences for railway safety.  

Vacancies and the increasing work load

The longer working hours and the inadequate rest for loco pilots is a direct result of the Railways not filling up vacancies. The total vacancies now amount to a staggering 3.12 lakh persons. Specifically, there are more than 18,000 vacancies for loco pilots. In fact, the Railway Board had only announced recruitment of 5696 loco pilots and only because of the recent accident and the ongoing agitation of loco pilots in the Southern Railway, has it recently announced plans to recruit 18,799 loco pilots. Going by past experience, by the time the recruitment actually happens the number of vacancies may climb even further.

According to a recent response to an RTI application, there are about 1.5 lakh vacancies of the total sanctioned strength of 10 lakh in the safety category. The relentless drive to reduce the workforce implies that even this does not reflect the actual strength required for the smooth and safe running of the railways. There is a shortage among all sections of safety category workers — train drivers, inspectors, crew controllers, loco instructors, train controllers, station masters, electrical signal maintainers, signaling supervisors, track maintainers, pointsmen among others. These workers are crucial for the safe operation of trains. The severe shortage also puts extreme pressure on the remaining workers. The threat of summary removal from service adds another dimension of pressure on these workers.

The Commission urges the Railway Board and the Ministry to address this issue on an urgent basis because it has implications for passenger and worker safety.  

Top officials unwillingness to take responsibility but blame workers instead

A disturbing feature of every recent accident has been the tendency of the top authorities – in particular the Minister and the officials of the railway Board — to put the blame on the lowest rung of the workforce, in particular the loco pilots, station masters, the signaling staff, and other workers. This was repeated after the recent accident too.

Shockingly, after the Vizianagaram accident, which resulted in 14 deaths, the Railway Minister flippantly alleged that the Loco Pilot and Assistant Loco Pilot were watching a cricket match, which led to accident. Although this was proved to be utterly false by CRS the Minister has not had the grace to apologise for his irresponsible allegation, which has a bearing on worker morale.

Senior railway officials often demand that railway workers cut corners and, in fact, violate standard rules of operation, in order to maintain train schedules in gross disregard of safety norms. Workers refusing such instructions are often punished or even dismissed from service citing specious grounds. It is obvious that such violations, which are well known and are a safety hazard, are happening with the connivance of the Railway Board. 

Kavach

The Railway establishment has touted the Kavach anti-collision system as a magic wand that would solve the problem of rain collisions. In reality, it is a system that requires an entire communication system to be in place – at stations, on tracks, on signals and on locomotives – in order to actually work. Progress has been lethargic. In the last three years the system has been installed only along 1500 km and on 65 locomotives, whereas the Indian rail system runs for 68,000 route kms and is served by more than 14,500 locomotives. Reports in the media indicate that there are only three private vendors implementing the system, indicating that their capacity may be very limited to meet the needs of such a large system. In effect, only about Rs 1200 crores have been provided in the last two budgets, which indicates just how serious the government has been about implementing the scheme.

As the recent accident has shown, modernisation is only one aspect of the problem. An even bigger issue is the lackadaisical manner in which human resources have been trained and utilised while working on these assets. The Commission would like to warn that this will be even more important in the case of the Kavach system. For example, if there is a derailment or collision, it is very likely that Kavach infrastructure would be destroyed as well, rendering the system ineffective. Railway workers need to be trained about what to do when such systems fail. Moreover, senior officials need to be hands-on in such situations, unlike what has happened in the recent accidents. This is an important lesson from the recent accidents.

The spate of railway accidents provide ample evidence that systemic failures lie at the heart of the problems in the Indian Railways. The Modi Government’s attempts at cosmetic “improvements” such as the introduction of the Vande Bharat trains, instead of addressing fundamental constraints such as the extreme congestion on the tracks, are a vain attempt to deceive and misdirect public opinion.  The latest accident, and several others in the last year, demonstrate that the prime casualty of this approach has been safety. 

Conclusion

The Commission calls upon the Union Government to:

• Modernise signal systems by allocating sufficient funds
• Make it mandatory for all railway staff to undergo periodic training on new equipment
• Reduce the working hours of loco pilots to 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week
• Provide loco pilots with regular weekly rest: to start with, 16+30 consecutive hours of rest
• Ensure loco pilots return to headquarters within 48 hours of duty
• Do not make loco pilots work for more than two consecutive nights
• Ensure sufficient funding to implement Kavach on entire network and locos within three years
• The top leadership of the Indian railways – particularly, the Ministry and the Railway Board – must scrupulously avoid rushing to blame workers for railway accidents because this affects worker morale
• The Union Government must treat the Railways as a productive national asset and undertake time-bound investments that decongest the Indian rail network, which is the primary cause for railway accidents. The Union Budget must address this as a topmost priority, which will also make rail transport safer.

Related:

Indian Railways not to Restore Ticket Concessions for Senior Citizens

Privatising Indian Railways is anti-national: CITU

The Indian Railways Need to be Saved

The post Treat Railways as a national asset, make time-bound urgent investments, curb overworking of staff: People’s Commission to Govt appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The authors of the letter state that they are deeply concerned that this decision includes hidden subsidies that may be passed on to the private corporates and MNCs by allowing them to use the infrastructure facilities, resources and skilled manpower of the units free of cost and, as if that is not enough, allowing them to manufacture and supply coaches/ locos at very high prices, much higher than the prices at which those production units are capable of supplying. This is nothing but allowing private corporates and MNCs to profiteer at the cost of the public exchequer, a matter that calls for an independent investigation.

Among the signatories are Thomas Isaac, former finance minister of Kerala, EAS Sharma former IAS officer, Dr CP Chandrashekhar, economist and Dr Prabhat Patnaik, economist.

The entire text of the letter may be read here:

To

Shri G C Murmu

Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG)

Dear Shri Murmu,

The People’s Commission has come to know that the Railway Board is opening a backdoor entry to private corporates, Indian and foreign, to privatise profit-earning Railway production units. The four units targeted so far are

1. Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, Tamil Nadu
2. Marathwada Rail Coach Factory (MRCF), Latur, Maharashtra
3. Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW), Varanasi, UP
4. Dahod Railway Workshop (DRW), Dahod, Gujarat

There could be more production units in the pipeline for such backdoor entry for private companies.

What distresses us most is that each one of these units is already manufacturing coaches/ locomotives at highly competitive costs, whereas the prices quoted by the private corporates are much higher. One of the agreements entered into by the Railway Board (Agreement for Manufacturing-cum-Maintenance of 6000 HP Freight and 9000 KW High Horse Power Passenger Electric Locomotives at Varanasi) with a private corporate is not only one-sided but it permits it to make use of the infrastructure facilities, the skilled manpower, and the resources belonging to the said Railway production unit for manufacturing coaches/ locomotives.  The tender documents based on which private companies are chosen do not mandate their obligation to transfer technology nor do they limit the timeframe over which they carry out manufacturing activity using the Railway’s infrastructure and manpower. At the same time, the tender documents seem to permit the private companies to label the Vande Bharats with their brands, giving the impression that the Railways’ own production units have no role. The private corporates thus using the resources of the production units are not required to compensate the latter. The one-sided agreements signed by the Railway Board effectively amount to private corporates brazenly allowed to profiteer at the cost of the Railways without the Railways deriving any net benefits. This calls for an independent investigation.

The agreements signed or to be signed with the private corporates, Indian and foreign, cover 200 Vande Bharat train sets to be supplied over the next 3-5 years. For this purpose, those private corporates will use the facilities, resources and skilled manpower of ICF and MRCF, as well as the designs and drawings provided by RDSO, for which the latter will not get compensated, suggesting huge hidden subsidies that allow these private corporates to earn undue profits at the cost of the Railways.

An equally disturbing fact is that the average cost of manufacture of a Vande Bharat by ICF is Rs 104 Crores, whereas the corresponding price payable to the concerned private corporates is Rs 139 Crores at the premises of ICF, and Rs 120 Crores for manufacturing Vande Bharats at MRCF. In other words, the excess price differential is around 15%-34%, not taking into account the huge hidden subsidies. We note that ICF has already manufactured and supplied 40 Vande Bharats successfully run by the Railways and another 35 are in the pipeline. Had the Railway Board not forced ICF to surrender 5000 posts and had it cared to fill the existing 2000 vacancies, ICF could have supplied many more Vande Bharats with utmost ease at far lower costs.

The most bizarre justification put forward by the Railway Board to allow entry of private corporates is that ICF is “unable” to rise to its expectations and supply a higher number of Vande Bharats. This in itself exposes the motives underlying the Railway Board’s approach, as it is the Railway Board that has curtailed the capacity of ICF to supply more Vande Bharats by deliberately and mindlessly reducing its manpower.

Coming to BLW and DRW, since June 2022, the Railway Board has made attempts to call for bids from foreign MNCs to manufacture and supply 800 locomotives of 12,000 HP capacity at BLW and 1200 locomotives of 9,000 HP capacity at DRW over a timeframe of 10 years. The order for 1200 (9,000HP) locos went to an MNC for Rs 26,000 Crores, roughly twice the cost at which the same locos are manufactured by the Chittaranjan Loco Works (CLW) in W. Bengal. The MNC will manufacture only 120 locos per year, whereas CLW manufactures 400 locos per year. The Railway Board has already spent Rs 500 Crores on creating facilities at DRW to facilitate the MNC manufacturing the locos. The Railway Board spent this money to convert a railway workshop into a production unit. The MNC is likely to take advantage of that investment without having to compensate the Railways!

As far as BLW in Varanasi is concerned, after the original bid for 12,000 HP electric locomotives failed to evoke any response, the bid was revised three times to further make it attractive to foreign investors,  but without response.  As of now, the Railway Board has revised the bid further to restrict the loco capacity to 6,000 HP, offering BLW’s infrastructure and resources. The Railway Board has already started building the additional infrastructure within BLW premises to attract and accommodate the foreign MNC.

BLW and CLW can manufacture and supply 6,000 HP and 9,000 HP capacity locos for the Railways. CLW had also successfully built and tested a 12,000 HP electric locomotive prototype. We understand that the Railway Board recently asked BLW, CLW and Patiala Loco Works (PLW) in Punjab to surrender 535, 3661 and 1007 vacant posts respectively, which in effect seems to be a ploy to reduce their ability to manufacture and supply a sufficient number of locos for the Railways, so that the Board may provide backdoor entry for MNCs.

How the Railway Board is rushing into inducting Indian and foreign MNCs for manufacturing coaches/ locos seems to fit into the larger pattern of the present government indiscriminately outsourcing strategic works to private companies at the cost of national interest, by weakening the CPSEs deliberately by failing to fill vacancies at all levels, forcing them to allow private companies to exploit their infrastructure assets through “asset monetisation” and not allowing them to compete with private bidders lest they should outbid the latter.

In the specific case of Railways’ production units referred to above, they represent a rich legacy of self-reliance built assiduously over several decades of sweat and toil put in by the highly talented, committed employees of the Railways. Any responsible government interested in promoting self-reliance would do everything to strengthen the capacity and capability of each of those units to step up their manufacturing activity to match the rapidly increasing demand for railway infrastructure and rolling stock. We feel that it is highly imprudent on the part of the Railway Board to systematically dismantle that legacy to allow private companies, especially MNCs, to profiteer using the valuable railway assets through substantial hidden subsidies and earn huge profits by charging inordinately high prices.

Indian Railways, especially the production units mentioned above, have created a wide range of employment opportunities at ICF (Chennai), MRCF (Latur), BLW (Varanasi) and CLW (W. Bengal), developed highly skilled teams of committed employees and promoted self-reliance at each of those locations. Considering that the Railway Board has taken up back-door privatisation at each of those locations, we apprehend that the entry of private corporates, Indian and foreign, will progressively shrink employment opportunities for the local people. Indirectly, it will have a serious adverse impact on the recruitment of people belonging to the disadvantaged sections, which the private companies would put an end to. Clearly, the Railway Board has not applied its mind to such crucial socio-economically important concerns.

The railway employees’ associations have resisted the entry of private corporates in ICF and have been able to stop it for the time being, the agreement signed to date has not been revoked. While the Railway Board issued an order to ICF for supplying 50 rakes of 24 coaches each over a time frame extending up to 2026-27, we apprehend that the present government will renew efforts to induct Indian and foreign MNCs in all production units once elections are over.

The Railway Board has so far signed one agreement (Manufacturing-cum-Maintenance Agreement for Vande Bharat Trains) and the same continues to be valid on date. However, considering the tender conditions and the conditions stipulated in the agreement signed so far, we feel that the approach of the Railway Board to introduce private parties in the production units is quite clear and it is most certainly going to become a fait accompli soon, which will have serious adverse implications not only from the point of view of self-reliance but also from the point of view of the propriety of the Board. Allowing private companies to set up their shop within the premises of each of the above cited production units, using the units’ resources in an open-ended manner without compensating them and manufacturing and supplying locos and coaches at prices far higher than the costs at which those units are supplying is condemnable.

In conclusion, we feel that the Railway Board should review its approach to inducting private corporates and MNCs in its production units. It should fill the existing vacancies and give back the surrendered posts to enable those units to expand their capacity to be able to meet the rapidly increasing demand in the coming years. In our view, this is the only way for the Railway Board to strengthen its production infrastructure and promote self-reliance, not by permitting private corporates to take over the Railway infrastructure.

In particular, we feel deeply concerned that hidden subsidies should be passed on to the private corporates and MNCs by allowing them to use the infrastructure facilities, resources and skilled manpower of the units free of cost and, as if that is not enough, allowing them to manufacture and supply coaches/ locos at very high prices, much higher than the prices at which those production units are capable of supplying. This is nothing but allowing private corporates and MNCs to profiteer at the cost of the public exchequer, a matter that calls for an independent investigation.

We feel that this is a fit case for CAG taking advance cognisance of and conducting a comprehensive performance audit lest the entry of private companies should become a fait accompli imposing a huge cost on the Railways and its long-term public interest implications.”

The letter may be seen here:

Related:

Kerala: Railways, Electricity Employees Convention Calls for Campaign Against Privatisation

Railways more than double NJP train fare, Jalpaiguri commuters protest

Privatising Indian Railways is anti-national: CITU

The post Stop backdoor entry of private players in Railway Production Units: Open letter to CAG appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A similar situation had occurred with passengers in March 2023, when several passengers complained about being charged undue amounts of money during festival season for ticket fares, according to the Times of India. Furthermore, the Sabrang India report has stated that on the eve of Chath Puja, November 17, the rent for the air-conditioned second-class seat from Mumbai to Patna was INR 9355. Meanwhile, the rent for AC Three Tier was INR 6655, and for sleeper class, it was INR 910. The AC three tier category had a fare of INR 6335. And this was only for the journey back to Mumbai. Similarly, on November 22nd, the fare for the air-conditioned second-class seat from Patna to Mumbai is INR 9395. The fare for AC Three Tier is INR 6655, and for AC Three Tier Economy, it is INR 6335.

The highest increase in fare is seen in the Sleeper Class category from Patna to Mumbai. While the maximum fare on November 17 in Sleeper Class was INR 910 for the journey to Patna, it has now reached up to INR 2625 for the return journey on November 22. On regular days, the fare for AC Two Tier from the Patliputra station is only INR 2645.

According to a report by Sabrang India, citizens online tried to humorously address this concern. One person named Ajay Prakash advises, “Be cautious not to gasp at the sight of the train fare. Ache din aane waale hain. Modi ji might just transform railways into aeroplanes and ensure equal fares.”

Along with surges in ticket prices, reports have emerged of the harrowing and even unsafe situation taking place at the railway stations. Furthermore, Newslaundry reported the condition of railway stations near the festive season and noted how scores of people were sitting on the floor and near toilets in trains, and on social media videos were showed scenes of people clinging to train doors in their attempt to reach their hometowns. This has happened despite the fact that the government has started 42 Chath special trains.

According to another report, due to the rising crowds at the railway stations several people have even witnessed fainting out of lack of oxygen. The police can be seen here trying to resuscitate these passengers. This chaos seems to be a routine occurrence every year prior to the Chath, people have expressed dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of transport facilities to cope with the increased demand. A passenger, who had reserved a ticket three months in advance, lamented the lack of hope and facilities, expressing frustration at being unable to board the train due to the overwhelming crowds.

सूरत रेलवे स्टेशन पर दिवाली और छट के त्यौहार पर घर जाने के लिए जमा हुई भारी भीड़ के चलते बड़ी संख्या में यात्री दम घुटने से बेहोश हुए ! #IndianRailways pic.twitter.com/Cqo4cosuLn

— News Network 24×7 (@24x7_network) November 11, 2023

Have the railways seen any hikes?

No, the Indian Railways have not introduced price hikes in the fare since 2014, reports however allege that there has been the inclusion of “superfast trains” that have higher prices. Despite this, many of the Indian railways passengers continue to face difficulties when booking tickets.

According to a report by The Hindu, a Right to Information request resulted in the response by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) that about 1.4 crore passengers were unable to secure confirmed seats, leading to denied train travel in the last six months.

What is the Suvidha provision by the Indian railways?

Prompted by the uproar, the Indian Railways has, according to Outlook, been considering removing the Suvidha Train options. But what are the Suvidha trains? 

In 2014, the Railway Ministry had introduced the Suvidha Express which was to address the growing demand for train tickets, especially during festival rushes. Thus, Suvidha Express works on some of the busiest routes and connects major cities across India. According to The Quint, the fares for Suvidha Express trains are relatively higher compared to other express trains covering the same route, and the fair is generally “dynamic.” This means that train ticket fares automatically undergo a 10 percent hike after every the sale of 10 tickets, thus as the date of travel approaches and the availability of seats declines, the prices continue to rise. This is the same model followed for airplane ticket prices.

Related:

अच्छे दिन? स्पेशल ट्रेनों के नाम पर लूट, लोग बोले, मोदी जी रेलवे और हवाई जहाज का किराया बराबर कर देंगे!

The Indian Railways Need to be Saved

UP Govt bans halal items, only allows for export

8 anti-mining activists allege brute lathi charge, agitators detained in Gadchiroli for “stopping cops from duty”

The post Railway ticket costlier than plane ticket: Uproar on social media appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Secondly, considering that there was already one serious instance of failure of the BPAC system on February 8, 2023 in the South West Railways, and one more now in Odisha, causing a large number of fatalities and injuries and the consequent human trauma, the Railway Board should reconsider running super-fast trains, knowing well that there is a possibility of more such BPAC failures occurring. To provide accident-free railway travel, the Ministry of Railways should shift its focus from speed to safety.

Thirdly, to deal with the chronic problem of heavy congestion, which has reached critical levels on about 10,000 route kilometer of trunk routes, Railway Board should come up with a detailed long-term plan for removing the chronic bottlenecks and upgrading the existing lines for 160-200 kmph on key trunk routes and adding new double-track lines for the higher speed of 200-250 kmph. The plan should not only be prepared but diligently adhered to in the next 10 to 15 years.

Fourthly, as far as accountability for the lapses that led to the Odisha accident is concerned, the Commission feels that those at senior levels in the government and in the Railway Ministry should own it more than those at the lower levels.

Considering the magnitude of the accident and the wide range of complex technical issues,  instead of CBI which has a history of inordinate delays (NIA has not filed any report on the Kuneru and Kanpur accident cases though 7 years have passed) a panel of three Commissioners of Safety (to be chosen by the Chief Commissioner of Safety) should be constituted to complete the study started by one Commissioner of Safety which should also look at the system failures like non-utilisation of funds allotted, huge vacancies in the safety category staff, inadequate upgradation of the existing trunk routes and adding new double-track lines on the key trunk routes to eliminate congestion, independence of the Railway Board, non-implementation of earlier recommendations and plans, and suggest clear steps to be taken.

A panel of three CRSs instead of just one can be expected to do a more thorough technical examination and be less susceptible to outside pressures. In the present scheme of safety regulation, the Railway Safety Commissioner submits his report to the Railway Ministry. The experience so far is that the Ministry often glosses over the findings, without effective follow-up action. In order to obviate the scope for it, we feel that all Railway Safety Commissioners’ reports be placed before the Parliament for effective action. The RDSO should collaborate with IITs, CSIR labs, and Universities to develop technologies/ adopt technologies to suit our country and to carry out studies on a range of topics such as demand and capacity, safety, punctuality, competition offered by the growing road and air modes and prepare a long time road map instead of non-implemented National Railway Plan. This is the key fifth recommendation made by the Commission.

Sixthly, the focus should be on strengthening the Public sector Railways instead of talking about Privatisation creating confusion and demoralisation in the minds of executives and employees, filling up of all vacancies immediately, converting contract employees into permanent employees with accountability and development of appropriate technologies.

Other recommendations include:

7. Governance is crucial, autonomy with accountability should be provided to the Railway    Board instead of making it subservient to the Minister and Parliament’s supervision        should be strengthened.
8. Bringing back the Rail Budget instead of submerging it with the union budget as it existed before.
9. Instead of finding scapegoats and trying to shift blame, the Govt and Railway Ministry should own up to responsibility and start remedial action as suggested.
10. Invest in the renewal of over-aged assets like track, bridge, signal etc and clear arrears. Draw effective plan for dedicated freight corridors, dedicated express lines,  expansion of the network, increase the average speed of goods trains and passenger services and increase the railway share of goods and passengers with government investments like done by China.
11. The declining share of Railways in the transport sector should be stopped and rail’s share should be increased to provide social security and safety at affordable rates, reasonable speed and adequate comfort to the majority of the Citizens.
12. The Commission is setting up a Task Force to monitor the action taken by the Ministry of Railways on the People’s Commission’s recommendations above, so that the Commission may keep the public at large of the action taken.

Statement on Odisha railway accident

The Commission, at the outset, wishes to express its deep concern at the occurrence of such a ghastly accident as the one that took place in Odisha recently. The Commission further wishes to express its grief at the death of more than 280 persons and injuries suffered by hundreds of others.

Indian Railways (IR) is among the largest of the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) in the country, annually moving 8.71 billion tonne-km of freight, 500 million passenger-km of passenger, employing more than 1.2 million personnel, who are professionally among the best in the world. IR provides one of the largest social security covers in the country, offering travel facilities at affordable charges for millions of short and medium-distance travellers belonging to low-income groups.

In particular, the Commission wishes its appreciation to thousands of local villagers who spontaneously provided immediate relief to injured passengers. The prompt way in which the NDRF personnel rose to the occasion is commendable.

Misplaced priorities and inadequate intervention on safety

In view of the critical dependence of the economy on railways and the increasing demand for railway movement of both freight and passenger traffic, the Railways ought to make additional investments in its basic infrastructure facilities such as the carrying capacity of its ageing tracks, the signalling systems, the anti-collision systems (Kavach), and other auxiliary facilities, crucially required for enhancing the safety of railway movement and its capacity. Of late, the policymakers have chosen to introduce high-speed passenger trains such as bullet trains and Vande Bharats, which in turn call for matching investments in the railway infrastructure. Unfortunately, the emphasis placed by the policymakers on speed has not been matched by their focus on safety, resulting in several ghastly accidents such as the latest accident that occurred in Odisha near Balasore.

While one expects the planners in the Ministry of Railways to make a professional analysis of the factors that have led to such accidents and draw lessons to improve the existing safety systems, accidents come and go by without lessons drawn. When an accident takes place, the senior public functionaries seem to feel satisfied by announcing palliatives such as ex-gratia relief for the victims and their families and displaying sentiment and emotion, knowing well that such limited relief does not address the immense human trauma to which the affected families are subject. It is also not uncommon to find senior public functionaries to place the blame on sabotage, rather than the technical factors and the institutional system for governance that lie behind those accidents. The latest accident in Odisha is yet another example of this.

Ignored Anil Kakodar committee recommendations, Justice Khanna Committee Report and CAG observations

There have been several reports on the ways and means of enhancing safety in railways, including those submitted by technical experts to the Railway Board, the reports submitted by the CAG to the Parliament and comprehensive reports brought out by Parliament Committees. A review of the action taken on each of these reports shows how the Ministry is yet to act on each of the important recommendations in those reports.

For example, the High Level Safety Review Committee (“Kakodkar Committee”) submitted their report in 2012 and made several far reaching recommendations on railway safety which include the setting up of an independent statutory railway safety authority, strengthening of the RDSO and the adoption of an Advanced Signalling System (akin to the European Train Control System) for the entire trunk route length of 19,000 km within 5 years. More than a decade has elapsed since then but such an independent regulatory authority, directly accountable to the Parliament, is yet to be set up. As far as the recommendation on the signalling system is concerned, the Ministry could have involved highly professional CPSEs such as Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Central Electronics Ltd (CEL) in locating the most advanced signalling technologies in the world and indigenised the same for adoption in IR, which has not been the case.

Acute congestion on the trunk routes:

Today rail in India suffers from subpar safety performance and slow speed of trains. Both these problems have to be dealt with together, one at the cost of the other would be undesirable for the future of rail transport in the country, particularly passenger travel.

By the Railway Board’s own data in the National Rail Plan, congestion has reached critical levels on about 10,000 km of the trunk routes (the quadrilateral and the two diagonals and some other routes) which are carrying trains at 125 to 150% of the capacity against the desirable limit of 70 to 90% capacity utilization. This acute congestion has resulted in inadequate windows of traffic blocks for the essential routine repair and maintenance of the track and other line infrastructure and insufficient slack to deal with operational hindrances and emergencies. Overcrowding in trains, particularly in the non-AC general and sleeper class coaches, is another serious concern which also results in higher fatalities in accidents. Acute congestion on the trunk routes and overcrowding in trains are adversely impacting both safety and speed.

The Vision 2020 plan for the future growth and expansion of Indian Railways, presented to the Parliament in 2009, had envisaged raising of speed on the existing trunk routes to 160-200 km/ph and building new higher speed lines. Evidently, this acute congestion on the critical trunk routes is the main reason for the failure to raise speed on the existing lines through upgradation of tracks, signals etc to compete with the road and air modes. No new lines have been constructed on trunk routes to cater to the growing demand for more trains.

Demands a comprehensive systemic evaluation

RDSO seems to have relied on a few private companies for introducing electronic signal locking systems such as Block Proving by Axle Counter (BPAC) using UFSBI. Considering that the indications so far in the specific case of the Odisha accident point to a possible failure of the BPAC system, it calls for a technical review of the functioning of BPAC systems, the extent to which they are failure-proof and their vulnerability to manual interference or manual lapses. Such an examination will be possible if the factors leading to the accident are first subject to a systematic technical evaluation rather than being hastily subject to an investigation by the CBI, as is the case now, on a somewhat subjective assumption that the accident was caused by sabotage.

The Commission has come across a  disturbing communication dated 9-2-2023 from PCOM, South Western Railway (it is available in the public domain) on the failure of the BPAC system at Hosadurga Road station of Birur-Chikjajur section of Mysore division on 8-2-2023, involving Sampark Kranti Express, leading to an “averted head-on collision” with a goods train. This was an alert that should have woken up the Railway Board to the possibility of the BPAC systems failing at times. The Commission wonders whether the Ministry has acted on such an important alert and ordered a thorough evaluation of the BPAC systems in position. This also brings us to the question whether the RDSO needs further strengthening.

Demands for filling of vacancies and an end to outsourcing and privatization

The Commission wishes to point out that whenever an accident such as the recent one in Odisha takes place, the tendency on the part of the Ministry is to presume that there are manual lapses and hold the lower-level functionaries such as the railway station personnel responsible for the accident rather than introspecting on whether its own policies and programmes have indirectly contributed to the recurrence of such accidents. The complete lack of concern shown for the filling of vacancies in Railways which is more than 3 lakhs, increasing contractual labour replacing regular ones, the efforts on asset monetisation and privatisation need to be mentioned as the other important example of misplaced priorities. The Parliamentary Committee on railway safety pointed out that 60% vacancy among staff for maintenance of tracks, inspection of railway bridges etc. has adversely affected track maintenance and inspection, which is crucial for minimizing the occurrence of accidents.

Speed vs Safety:

While faster trains no doubt help Railways provide relief to passengers, though a small proportion of the total volume of passenger traffic, thus helping it to compete with road transport and airlines, increasing the speed of trains in a congested section will slow down other passenger trains catering to short- and medium-distance, low-income passengers as well as freight trains. In fact, if at all speeding train movement is to be considered, it should be in the case of freight-carrying trains, to maximize economic returns.

The Commission feels that zero-tolerance for accidents is far more important than indiscriminately launching super-fast trains such as Vande Bharats. The highest priority should be given to safety, before introducing any more super-fast trains.

Peoples Commission on Public Sector and Public Services 

About Peoples’ Commission on Public Sector and Public Services (PCPSPS): Peoples’ Commission on Public Sector and Services includes eminent academics, jurists, erstwhile administrators, trade unionists and social activists. PCPSPS intends to have in-depth consultations with all stakeholders and people concerned with the process of policy making and those against the government’s decision to monetise, disinvest and privatise public assets/enterprises and produce several sectoral reports before coming out with a final report. Here is the first interim report of the commission- Privatisation: An Affront to the Indian Constitution.

Related:

Balasore tragedy: survivors found amidst corpses; unclaimed dead bodies still an issue

Kharge slams union govt for asking CBI to probe Odisha train accident: Letter to Modi

Hate and the Balasore train tragedy: Welcome to 2023 India

The post Odisha’s Balasore train accident: misplaced priorities, poor safety measures, CAG & key committee recs ignored: People’s Commission appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Bhopal: Clearing the air over the speculations of restoration of concessions on senior citizens in train tickets, the Indian railways has explicitly dismissed the prospect of restoring it. Before COVID, women passengers above the age of 58 were eligible for a 50% fare rebate, while men above 60 were eligible for a 40% discount. This applies to all trains, except Garib Rath and a few other trains like the Gatiman Express, Suvidha, and Humsafar trains.

In a reply filed by Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch-based RTI activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur to CRIS (Central railways Information Systems) seeking the status of the recommendations made by the Parliamentary standing committee on railwayss over the restoration of concessions on senior citizens in train tickets, the railways said, “After duly considering the recommendations of the standing committee, the railways has reached to the conclusions that it gave a subsidy of Rs 59,837 crore in 2019-20 on all the passenger tickets which are 53% of total the ticket’s fair. Besides, the concession for disabled, patients and students are already in play.”

The Ministry of railways, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on March 19, 2020, issued a circular withdrawing all the concessions given on train tickets for various categories, including senior citizens (except four categories of Divyangjan, 11 categories of patients and students). This was done to prevent non-essential travelling during COVID-19.

Before COVID, women passengers above the age of 58 were eligible for a 50% fare rebate, while men above 60 were eligible for a 40% discount. This applies to all trains, except Garib Rath and a few other trains like the Gatiman Express, Suvidha, and Humsafar trains.

When the railways did not restore the concession after months of the COVID-19 restrictions eased off, questions were raised in the parliament. Replying to it, the Union railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in the Monsoon session of the parliament in 2022, said, “Re-starting concessions for senior citizens were not feasible for the government.”

But after the Parliamentary standing committee on railwayss submitted its report on August 4, 2022, in favour of the restoration of senior citizens’ concession for sleeper and 3AC passengers, hopes have gone up that the railwayss might restore the concessions.

The committee recommended that since the railwayss are heading towards normalcy, they should consider the concessions granted to different categories of passengers judiciously.

“The Committee desires that concessions to senior citizens which were available in pre-COVID times may be reviewed and considered at least in Sleeper Class and III AC urgently so that the vulnerable and the genuinely needy senior citizens could avail the facility in these classes,” the report read.

But, the RTI reply clarifies that the railwayss has no plan to restore the concessions.

To justify their decision, the railways termed the concession to senior citizens as a ‘loss of revenue’. It argued that the railways have been losing an average of Rs 1,800 crore yearly due to concession on passenger tickets which dropped to Rs 38 crore in 2020-21 — the year concessions were dropped.

Subsidy for Senior Citizens 2016-17 to 2020-21

Nevertheless, the railways, in an RTI reply, admitted that over 65% of the senior citizens travelling between 2015 to 2018 either opted for sleeper classes or non-AC coaches.

The railways said, “Between 2015 to 2018, 54% of senior citizens preferred sleeper class, 16 % opted for 3-AC, 7% of passengers opted for Chair Car, an additional 7% travelled in 2-AC, 2% in other AC classes while the remaining 14% travelled in other non-AC coaches.

Classification of passengers travelled between 2015-2018

The data indicates that the senior citizens benefiting from the concessions belong to the middle or marginalised classes.

After dropping senior citizen concessions, the RTI further sought the details of the railways’ earnings. The railways said between April 2020 and September 2022, it earned Rs 5808.85 crore by selling 11.3 crore tickets to senior citizens, including 6. 8 crore men and 4.54 crore.

The railways earned Rs 3,434 crore from males and Rs 2,373 crore from female passengers. By dropping senior citizen concessions, railways saved close to Rs 1,300 crore from male and Rs 1,200 crore from female senior citizens.

According to Gaur’s RTI, the number of aged passengers, which dropped during the COVID times, is restabilising to pre-pandemic levels. In Financial Year 2019-20, Indian railways carried 7.3 crore elderly persons, dropping to 1.90 crore in FY 20-21. However, it climbed to 5.5 crore in FY22, and in the ongoing financial year till September end, it reached 3.87 crore.

Showing displeasure over the railways’s decision, a member of the Bhopal Citizen Forum, Harish Bhavnani, pointed out, “It’s not joyful to see that railways dropped an essential welfare scheme for senior citizens and termed it as ‘loss of the revenue’. India is a welfare state, and when politicians and government officials can get concessions, why can’t the senior citizens?”

“Instead of discontinuing it, the railways should raise the age bar from 60 to 65 for men and 58 to 60 for women. It may cut down the losses,” he suggested.

SK Gaur, a member of the Bhopal-based senior citizen forum, further said that senior citizens are an unorganised sector, where just a small proportion of people have pensions or earnings.

“Besides, inflation is skyrocketing, and there is hardly any direct government policy for middle-class senior citizens. In that case, discontinuing such a popular scheme is against the aged people.”

Apart from concessions, in reply to the question in the ongoing parliament sessions, the Indian railways have brushed aside the speculation over resuming the stoppage of trains in the railway stations as it was in pre-COVID-19 times.

NO STOPPAGE OF TRAINS

Replying to the question of BJP MP from Khajuraho VD Sharma and Rakesh Singh, a parliamentarian from Jabalpur, the railways said that it has scientifically redesigned the timetable after the COVID and stoppages at these stations are neither operationally expedient nor commercially justified at present.

railways said, “To provide better passenger safety by creating maintenance corridor blocks, minimising conflicts in existing time tables etc., Indian railways had undertaken rationalisation of time tables (including that of stoppages) in a scientific manner with the assistance of IIT-Bombay. Since November 2021, Mail/Express services have been operated as per rationalised timetable and stoppages. However, provision of stoppage is an ongoing process on Indian railways subject to operational feasibility, commercial justification, etc.”

Courtesy: Newsclick

The post Indian Railways not to Restore Ticket Concessions for Senior Citizens appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Hundreds of daily commuters protested in Haldibari and Belakoba railway stations of Jalpaiguri district on February 8, 2021 against the hikes fares and mandatory reservation fiat for the Haldibari-New Jalpaiguri (NJP) passenger train that finally resumed services after the pandemic-induced lockdown.

According to The Telegraph, daily passengers such as office-goers, domestic help and farmers complained about the Northeast Frontier Railway’s (NFR) decision to impose a flat rate of Rs. 35 between any two stations along the NJP-Haldibari route and mandatory booking. Earlier the fare between Haldibari-NJP was Rs. 15 and the fare between Jalpaiguri and NJP was Rs. 10.

People who could not afford the new prices began sloganeering and demonstrating in front of the ticket counter and entrance, just as the train from Haldibari chugged into Jalpaiguri station. Some protesters confined some railway employees and shouted slogans. Later, people at Belakoba followed suit with such agitations.

According to a commuter and government employee Nitai Das, people stood at the ticket counter at Jalpaiguri town station with booking slips but none could board the train. Railway authorities stated that tickets were to be bought at least four hours before the train’s departure because tickets could not be issued after the reservation chart was readied. Many people such as vegetable vendors struggled to fill reservation forms. Incidentally, the train takes an hour to travel from one end of the route to the other.

The NJP train served as the principal mode of transport for hundreds of farmers in the agricultural belt of northern West Bengal, said Jalpaiguri district CPM Secretary Salil Acharya. For the last 10 months, farmers managed by hiring smaller vehicles to take their produce.

Acknowledging this burden on common people, Jalpaiguri District Chamber of Commerce Working President Bikash Das said that the decision should be revoked otherwise commuters would rise in protest. Meanwhile, railway authorities said they could not act unless they received orders from senior officials.

The train which used to run four times a day from both ends daily, runs twice from both ends of the route as a special train. On February 9, railway authorities also withdrew stops from three of the 10 stations that lacked the facility to sell reserved tickets: Kadobari, Kashiabari and Mohitnagar.

Related:

Farmers observe ‘rail roko’ across India

Koo instead of Twitter: Is India becoming the next China?

Take a train, visit Tripura, vote to keep BJP out of Bengal: Manik Sarkar

BJP getting overconfident in Bengal after Bihar win?

The post Railways more than double NJP train fare, Jalpaiguri commuters protest appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Central government’s decision to speed up the privatisation process of Indian Railways has drawn sharp criticism from Unions and railway officials alike.

Recently, the Centre decided to merge seven coach factories into a single entity as part of the Railway’s privatisation process. The General Secretary (GS) of the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) Tapan Sen, described the plan “a criminal act by the government.”

He said that unifying several coach factories into a single unit would corporatise the production unit which would only benefit the corporate companies taking over the railway sector. As per a statement released by the CITU, production units are claimed as ‘the gems of Indian Railways.’ Even the government acknowledges this, yet insists on giving the contract for these factories to multinational companies.

According to a report by Desh Abhimani; Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Varanasi Diesel Locomotive Works, Patiala Diesel Loco Modernisation Works, Chennai Integral Coach Factory, Kapurthala Railcoach Factory, Bengaluru Wheel And Axle Factory and Rae Bareli Modern Rail Coach Factory are to be merged into a single company with all of government stake sold off eventually. Railway lands at various places will be handed in long-term leases.

The procedures to sell off coach and locomotive factories after first privatising stations has already begun. Moreover, 151 private trains will be introduced and private participation in the cargo corridor will be encouraged.

Sen also explained how the setting up of seven to nine corporate committees instead of a single railway network will destroy the smooth functioning of Railways. “Once these individual committees are made, they will start competing with one another. This will destroy the synergy of the railway sector which in turn will mean that non-revenue generating sectors will be closed down. This will leave people high and dry as has been done before,” said Sen.

As per the Desh Abhimani article, Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav was promoted to the post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO.) Similar several major posts on the Board were scrapped that dealt with departments handling staff, engineering and materials management, and will likely get taken by corporate representatives in days ahead. 

Sen said that there have been previous examples in countries like England and Argentina, where private companies had to retreat from public transport sectors due to social unrest. Despite these cases, the government has continued with its decision that will take away the job of many railway workers.

He pointed out that many vacancies already exist in Railways. Still the government intends to remove nearly 50 percent of its employees. However, Sen argued that this problem is not restricted to railway employment alone. It will have a ripple effect in other sectors like vending or affect sectors that depend on railways for the transport of commodities.

While an estimated 3.5 lakh jobs could be on the chopping block, according to Chairperson of Railway Pravasi Group Harsha Shah, the figure could be higher. Shah says that this decision puts the jobs of as many as 10 lakh people employed in Railways at risk! 

“The people who hold posts of Station Manager and above have nothing to fear. However, the employment of the rest of the employees is now uncertain,” she said.

Building on this idea, Chairperson Shah said, “Railways have been a relief for everyone, especially the poor. If we hand it over to the private sector, people’s pockets are going to become empty. They have cancelled 500 trains for which they will now bring in their own trains with new fares.” These fares would be too expensive for the working class of the country.

Few Unions like the DREU, All India Loco Running Staff Association, Station Master & Guard Associations have voiced their dissent against the decision. The CITU protest held in July saw a large number of Railway employees from Kashmir to Kanyakumari participate in outcry against Centre’s sell-out tactics, said the Desh Abhimani article.

Meanwhile, the Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (DRUCC) member and activist Mansoor Umer Darvesh said the government intends to sell everything in an effort to make up for its losses.

“The new private contractors will apply their own laws,” he said stating that this will add to the pre-existing problem of unemployment.

Regarding the Centre’s insistence that this plan will help Railways generate revenue, Sen said, “The operational revenue may be shared by the corporates and Railways. However, the commercial revenue will be pocketed completely by the corporates.”

Similarly, Chairperson Shah said, “Every year, Railways have generated nearly 90,000 crore revenue for the Centre. Not a single penny from that revenue was used for Railways’ benefit. Now they want to hand Railways to the private sector. There’s a misgiving that the corporations will help Railways. They will sell the government if necessary. Railways should remain in the public sector. This decision of the Centre is wrong.”

Related:

Privatising Indian Railways is anti-national: CITU

Trade unions launch nationwide protest Centre’s anti-worker policies

Arrests mark a nationwide Protest Day observed by Central Trade Unions

The post Railway privatisation could lead to loss of at least 3.5 lakh jobs! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Last week, the Indian Railways invited proposals from private companies to run 151 passenger trains on 109 pairs of routes across the country. The project would entail private sector investment of about Rs. 30,000 crore and is said to be done as an initiative to introduce modern technology rolling stock with reduced maintenance, reduced transit time, boost job creation, provide enhanced safety, reduce demand supply deficit in the passenger transportation sector and provide a world class travel experience to passengers.

Ministry of Railways has invited Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for private participation for operation of passenger train services over 109 Origin Destination(OD) pairs of routes through introduction of 151 modern Trains (Rakes).https://t.co/rUyBpOidQQ pic.twitter.com/ORSLx2w7zX

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) July 1, 2020

The Union government has said that the private entity shall have the freedom to decide on the fare to be charged from its passengers and it shall be free to procure trains and locomotives from a source of its choice. It has also said that the scheduled maintenance of the trains will take place after a run of 40,000 kms. The project also proposes that no similar train will depart in the same origin two destination route within 60 minutes of the Scheduled Operation of the Concessionaires Train.

This program of the Indian Railways will be executed by 2023 and the proposal has garnered interest from Adani Ports, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, Essel Group, Bombardier India and Macquarie Group, Moneycontrol reported. Adani Ports today owns one of the largest private railway lines in India, one which spans 300 km and connects ports and other business hubs for cargo movement. It also set up its own subsidiary to focus on metro rail projects. In 2018, EsselInfraprojects Ltd won the first railway project for Rs 17.06 billion on the Eastern Freight Corridor connecting Howrah and Chennai mainline. In May, Bombardier India won the contract to supply 210 commuter and metro cars for the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System.

The announcement of the privatisation of these trains came after the Railway Minister had earlier continued to vehemently deny that the Railwayswould  beprivatised. Chairman of the Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav, put out a video, probably in a bid to pacify passengers and railway unions, saying that 95 percent of the trains will be run by the Indian Railways and all their ticket prices will be fixed by the Indian Railways. He went on to say that private trains would only be an additional facility for passengers and fill in a deficit which is currently not being met by the Indian Railways. Through the video he keeps repeating that the common man will benefit from this and there will be no rise in ticket prices, but instead people will be able to avail better facilities.

भारतीय रेल द्वारा 151 निजी ट्रेनों के संचालन से यात्रियों के लिये ट्रेनों में सीटों की उपलब्धता बढेगी, इस विस्तार से रोजगार का सृजन होगा, यात्रियों को अच्छी सुविधा मिलेगी :
अध्यक्ष रेलवे बोर्ड, श्री विनोद कुमार यादव pic.twitter.com/IlKZIFe9qa

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) July 4, 2020

However, there seems to be a discrepancy in this announcement given that the private players will be allowed to fix their own fares. Not just this, the Railway Ministry has also put out a tweet saying that it is not going to surrender any safety category posts required for train operations & maintenance. It had asked for a ‘review’ and freezing of jobs in the non-safety category posts, saying that it was ‘rightsizing’ and not ‘downsizing’.

Indian Railways is not going to surrender any safety category posts required for train operations & maintenance

Review is been done only for non safety category vacant posts so that addl. safety posts can be created for new Rly. Infra. Projects being developed at fast speed

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) July 3, 2020

However, the non-safety category posts include thousands of employees who work as a peon, account clerk, steno, helpers, teacher, hospital attendant, hospital cleaner, cook, painter, fitter, mason, chowkidar and lab assistants among others. Newsclick reported that following the directive, many zones had started downsizing or holding recruitment, thereby affecting thousands.

Hence, to understand the on-ground ramifications of this announcement, Sabrang India spoke to Venu Nair, General Secretary of the National Railways Mazdoor Union. Nair said, “It has always been noted that Prime Minister Modi and Railway Minister PiyushGoyal have time and again said that privatisation of Indian Railways will not take place. Now that the truth is out, more than the people employed with the Indian Railways, I am concerned about the people from lower sections of the society. If this privatisation takes place, people who are using trains now, will not be able to do so in the future. For example, Mumbai’s local trains run on the harbour line, central line, western line, etc. and we charge nominally, around 18 paise per kilometer for tickets. In the same city, you have Ambani’s Metro Rail which charges almost Rs. 4 per km. Our trains run at 100 kmph while the Metro runs at 60kmph. Nobody can enter the Metro without a ticket or any concession, while Indian Railways offers concessions in more than 100 categories – for the media, senior citizens, army men, cancer patients, HIV patients, the differently abled, for children, for policemen and more. This is because we are Indian Railways. If this is privatised, do you think these concessions will remain? Where will the poor people go and how will they travel? People come from far-flung areas to the city to work as they can rely on trains which are the cheapest, safest and most reliable mode of transport. How will they travel?”

Explaining the precarious implications of the GOI’s decision, he added, “If you remember, the Railway Minister had announced a plan to convert the Central Locomotive Parel Workshop into a terminus. This workshop has been existing since the time of the British and holds assets of about 1,100 crores. Around 3,000 people work there and the government wants to finish it off? Why does Parel need a terminus? Mumbai is so congested. There are already five termini here – LokmanyaTilak Terminus, Bandra Terminus, Dadar Terminus, Bombay Central and Victoria Terminus and they want to make another one? For whom do they want to make it? If it’s for the benefit of IR and people of Maharashtra, we don’t have a problem. Most of the trains coming from the northeast and southeast directions to Mumbai, empty out (almost 60-70 percent) at Kalyan. If the government is so concerned, it should make a terminus there. Who is going to benefit with a terminus at Parel?”

“Nobody wants to listen to us or understand our point. If you remove our good routes and give it to a private entity it will only benefit the corporates. What will happen to the poor? The Tejas train that was run from Lucknow to Delhi is run on the same route that the Indian Railways’ Shatabdi Express runs on. The Shatabdi Express stops at 5 stations, while the Tejas stops at 3 stations. Our Shatabdi train, after stopping at 5 stations, takes just 5 minutes more to reach Delhi and the Tejas train charges twice the amount for lesser service. The profit is earned by the corporates but if the Tejas train is late, there is an arrangement made that the IR will pay passengers Rs. 100 if the train is late for an hour or Rs. 200 if the train is late for 2 hours. Why should the loss be borne by the IR if the profit is enjoyed by the corporates? Even for the Tejas they had said that no train would train 30 minutes before or after the Tejas train arrives and departs – was this to put the trains we’re proud of running, into the bin?” asked Nair.

Talking about unemployment issues, Nair said, “Indian Railways is the biggest employer. Our PM says we have more than 20 crore unemployed youth in the country. Don’t they need jobs? If you kill the Indian Railways, how will these youth get jobs? Even the Class IV employees in the IR get at least Rs. 25,000 as salary. Shouldn’t we give them a chance in such government institutions? The government wants to finish such jobs and employ 3 people for Rs. 8,000 each and say we provided employment. But what other security benefits will such people get? If you give all benefits and ensure that a person can manage their lives in a dignified way, we will understand. But Rs. 8,000 is not enough to survive. I don’t understand why the government is discriminating against the poor and the working class?”

He also pointed out, “Today, during the pandemic, apart from the media, all those working on the ground are government employees – banks, police, trains, frontline workers, etc. Had the unions not protested privatisation from the start, the IR would’ve already been privatised by now. The government is taking all the credit for the return of migrant workers back to their homes. If the trains had been privatised, would these migrants have ever returned home? Today, the IR has made special coaches to treat people in the pandemic. Would the private players do so? This is something to think about.”

“I think the fight we’re going to undertake next, shouldn’t just be for the employees of the IR, but actually ensure that IR lives and exists for the public. If the people fight with us, we will definitely be successful. I am not worried about this generation of employees in the IR, but the next generation. The government has issued circulars to all zones to surrender 50 percent of all non-security related vacancies. What does this mean? It means you’re eating up the jobs of the future generation. For each vacancy lost, one person loses employment,” he added.

Speaking about the safety compromises, Nair said, “Our coaches are maintained after every 4,000 km. But now it is said that with the coming of private entities, the trains will be maintained after a run of 40,000 kms. This is where the safety will be compromised. You will not require people to look after operations there. Sometime ago, a boulder had fallen on one of the tracks in the southeast direction during the rains. The government had removed personnel who used to specifically look at operations on these tracks and replaced them with CCTVs. But a CCTV will tell you that the boulder has already fallen. But those people who have lived their life studying those tracks used to alert us of any disasters. In other countries, technology is upgraded because there’s no manpower there. Here we don’t need privatisation because unlike other countries, we don’t have a shortage of passengers. There’s a shortfall of trains, which we can make too.”

Making a scathing statement against the government, Nair said, “The government sees railway employees as a liability because they have to offer benefits and listen to the unions who fight for the rights of the people. They want people who will just listen to them and exploit them. This is a well-planned strategy. In 1999-2000, during the Vajpayee government, there was a Rakesh Mohan Committee that said that the non-core activities of the Railways should be privatised. As per them, only drivers and operating departments like station masters came under core activities. We had started opposition then itself. Then came the BibekDebroy Committee during PM Modi’s regime that coaches and locomotives too could be privatised to increase competition. What competition are they talking about? Making men and women stand at the entrances of private trains to greet passengers is this what privatisation is about? Are these people even given money or are they treated like contract labourers? This even goes against our ethics, dressing up young women and touting them to be airhostesses just for customers.”

Concluding on a concerned note Nair said, “I fear that in the coming years, the services for the poor and middle class will be eliminated altogether. Maybe the suburban services will be shut. The Metro railway is like an alternative arrangement being set up. If people say we have no way to travel, the government will point out to the Metro and say there is. We can only protest now. I think the Railways should have nominally increased the fare as it would help maintain our infrastructure and other services. If we call for an increase in prices, there’s a protest and I’m sure these protests aren’t done by passengers. This is done by those who want to keep their vote bank. I will keep fighting till I can. Not fighting means you don’t have love for the railways or your country or the future generation.”

While the disparity between what is being said and what is happening on ground is stark, what is of more concern is the cultural divide this decision is going to bring about. Currently, the private entities may only be given 5 percent, it will be no surprise if this number balloons in the future, and this, coupled with exorbitant fares will only further push the underprivileged on the fringes of society.

The post “Fighting rail privatisation is a battle for universal access to reasonable travel and employment”: NRMU Gen Secy Venu Nair appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has reacted strongly to the Central government’s Request For Qualification (RFQ) extended to the private corporates, both Indian and international, for operating passenger train services over 109 pairs of stations. The CITU has called this an “anti-national” move by the government. According to a statement issued by Tapan Sen, General Secretary. The CITU has alleged that this move has put “Indian Railways, the pride of India and its precious wealth, on sale”.

Sen stated that it was “appalling that the government chose the lockdown period to fast track this anti national policy.” The 109 pairs of high speed trains have been formed into 12 clusters and will be run across the railway network, by the drivers and guards employed by the Indian Railways. Apart from that all the other employees are likely to be of the private operators. These private operators will be responsible for procuring, operating and maintaining the trains and safety of the passengers.  

The CITU has objected to this and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government has already permitted 100% FDI in manufacturing and maintenance of rolling stock, signalling and electric workers and dedicated freight lines. “In the name of redevelopment of railway stations it has started handing over the railway stations along with the huge amounts of real estate to the private corporates,” it alleged, adding that the private players “will only work towards maximising their profits, and not providing a cheap mode of transport to the people.” It added that most travellers availing railway transport will be subjected to a heavier burden of unaffordable railway fares.  

CITU has highlighted that the Union government’s claim of a Rs 30,000 crore investment and employment generation “has no meaning as the drainage due to loss of revenue to the Indian Railways in these revenue generating routes and high speed trains will more than neutralise the said hypothetical figure.” CITU also said that the potential employment lost due to privatisation of Indian Railways, in its workshops, maintenance units etc will be much higher than any fresh employment created by the private players. “Most of the jobs that will be created will be precarious jobs, not permanent jobs with decent wages and social security,” it added.  

CITU has called upon the major railway employees’ unions to “build a strong struggle of resistance and defiance to this anti people and anti national move of the BJP government”. 

It cited the example of coal workers who have “already shown the way of such defiance and resistance to move for privatisation of the coal sector through the massive and total three day strike on June 2-4 July 2020.” CITU states that even defence employees may soon “resist and defy privatisation of the sector,” and will express “support to go on strike in their strike ballot.”                                                                                                

In what is one the first ever large scale strikes during the national lockdown, around 5.3 lakh coal workers went on a strike across the country on July 2 in response to a call given to oppose “the move to privatise the country’s coal industry and promote commercial mining and trading of coal by private sector including foreign entities,”. CITU called the privatisation proposal “disastrous for the country’s energy security and productive operation of the country’s industrial economy as a whole.” It claimed that the strike had massive participation in all the subsidiary companies under Coal India Ltd, viz; Eastern Coalfields Ltd(ECL), Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL), Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL), South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), North Eastern Coalfields Ltd (NECL) and CMPDIL and also in Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL).

Related:

Defy, resist, combat: Farmers’ unions call for massive mobilisation

Arrests mark a nationwide Protest Day observed by Central Trade Unions

The post Privatising Indian Railways is anti-national: CITU appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This is probably one of the most heartbreaking stories that highlights the conditions of the ‘special’ Shramik trains that have been arranged to take migrant workers back to their homes as they flee their inhospitable workplaces. However, so far, there has been no outrage demaning an inquiry into how a 10-month-old baby died on board a Shramik train in Uttar Pradesh.

No one has asked for a reply from the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal even as the baby’s family who were travelling on the  Shramik train to UP, that it was the Railways’ apathy that led to the tragedy. According to a report by The Telegraph, the 10-month-old baby boy had fever and was experiencing breathing difficulties on board the train, the family had asked for help from the officials at many stations enroute, including at the halt at Aligarh.

As most railway doctors are now on duty at Covid-19 hospitals, this resulted in the delay of arranging for a doctor provided at Tundla railway station, however, it was too late, the child’s grandfather Dev Lal has been quoted in news reports. The baby’s family has alleged that no one at the  railways arrange for a doctor despite their repeated pleas. “They said any help would be available only in Tundla,” said Lal as quoted by The Tribune.

According to the report, Priyanka Devi, the young  mother from Bihar’s Notan village in West Champaran, had gone to visit her parents in Noida with the baby. They had got stuck there when the lockdown was suddenly announced.

As the Railways suspected that the baby had died of Covid-19 and then took the family to a quarantine centre in Tundla,. This story of state apathy was exposed on Monday when someone else at the quarantine facility leaked the news to local journalists as the child’s mother’s  condition worsened.

One more death, allegedly due to hunger, has been reported from another Shramik Express train headed towards Uttar Pradesh. The Tribune reports on the tragic death of a 46-year-old migrant construction worker, who was  traveling from Mumbai to Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh. He died on Saturday, allegedly because no water or food had been provided on the train packed with migrant workers. The Tribune quotes his nephew Raveesh Yadav, who said the victim had not eaten anything in 60 hours.

Yadav told the paper that his uncle who was “complaining of hunger and pain all over his body, fainted half an hour before we reached Varanasi Cantonment and died within a few minutes.” He added that he and his uncle were hungry when they boarded the train but could not find food or water to buy. “We weren’t carrying any food or water because we had heard the railways were providing food packs and water bottles on the trains. Even the other passengers in our compartment had no food or water left with them, so nobody could help us. And there was no water in the train at all,” he told reporters.

From the railways, news reports state that Ravi Prakash Chaturvedi, additional divisional railway manager, Varanasi, has denied that no food or water had been served on the train. “The man died before the train reached Varanasi Cantonment station. The GRP took the body in custody. Family members of the dead man have said he was a heart patient and may have died because of that,” he said.

A bizarre claim indeed as food and water are essentials that the railways had to provide as the migrant workers are undertaking long journeys across the country even as heatwave conditions intensify in parts of northern India. A heart patient when starved and dehydrated is most vulnerable. “Yes, my uncle was a heart patient but he died because he was hungry for more than 60 hours,” his nephew said, adding that they had paid Rs 940 each  for the tickets. The train he said did not stop at any station till Katni, Madhya Pradesh, after 18 hours. The train stood there for three hours but there was no food or water for the migrants to buy at the station.

The new report also states that Raveesh and others had “requested the Government Railway Police and railway officials to provide us water and food. But they ignored us and wouldn’t let us step off the train. The GRP was wielding lathis.”

The ones who have reached their destinations alive, even if hungry and thirsty, are the lucky ones. Multiple reports have stated how the complete confusion and a dangerous lack of coordination and the absence of communication from the Indian railways has put the lakhs of migrant workers at risk. The trains are crowded, with ill maintained, or missing facilities, as alleged by the travellers and yet are the only way the migrants can get home fast. Adding to all that is news of trains not even reaching their intended destinations. It has been reported how A Jaunpur-bound Shramik train from Mumbai, was kept waiting for more than seven hours when it was just 40km from its destination. Railway sources told reporters that  the Jaunpur authorities refused to receive the train saying they had not been informed about its arrival in advance. “We are normally informed two days in advance about such trains so that we can coordinate with the district administration and arrange buses to ferry the passengers to their villages, where they are kept in government quarantine for 14 days,” a railway official told reporters in Jaunpur on condition of anonymity. The train was later sent to Mughalsarai.

The HW news portal has reported that 40 Shramik special trains have ‘lost their way’ even as Railways gets busy with damage control. A train that left for Gorakhpur from Mumbai’s Vasai road and ended up in Odisha’s Rourkela. Railways, however, had clarified that the train did not lose the way and was diverted because of the congestion, reported HW news.

According to Navbharat Times, sources from the railways said that many trains were ‘diverted’. News reports however add that over 40 trains may have changed their route till yesterday. As expected the  Railways says the routes have been ‘changed deliberately’. For example a shramik train headed to Basti in Uttar Pradesh ended up at Ghaziabad station. Another one bound  for Patna from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai had reached Puruliya. Yet another one left Goa to reach Balia in UP, but ended up at Nagpur in Maharashtra.

News reports have quoted Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav as saying that “around 80% of trains have been reaching Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, because of which there has been a surge in crowding of people. This is the reason why the railways had to change routes of some trains.”

Though no one has explained why this had not been thought of earlier as these are not newly laid train routes. No one has even bothered to explain why water, or food has not been made available to migrant workers who are stranded on these trains for even longer hours than they expected.

The post For migrant labourers returning home even the special trains are becoming death traps appeared first on SabrangIndia.