AILRSA SWR Gate meeting on 23.07.15

AILRSA South Western Railway  Zone organised

GATE MEETING on 23.07.2015 in front of all CREW BOOKING DEPOTS

Demands:

1. Reject Dr. Bibek Debroy committee recommendation

2. Implement 6 hrs duty ( Intensive Classification) as directed by Ministry of Labour

3. Implement Justice. HR Khanna, High Power Committee(HPC) on Hours of Employment Regulation(HOER), High Level Safety Review Committee(HLSRC) headed by Dr Anil Kakodkar, Minutes of SPAD meeting by Railway Board.

4. Scrap the draconian minimum penalty for Signal Passing cases without any accident.



The Gate meeting in front of Crew Booking office at Platform 1 of Bengaluru Railway Station was addressed by the following

Sri. R. Surendran, Working President, AILRSA South Western Railway Zone,

Sri AT Fernandes, Divisional President, AILRSA Bengaluru Division,

Sri. V Krishnanand, Joint Secretary, AILRSA, Bengaluru division.

At Arsikere Crew Booking office program addressed by following

Sri. K Rameshan, General Secretary, AILRSA, SWR

Sri. Sanjoy Swarnakar, Teasurer, AILRSA Mysore Division.

Sri. Mahesh Kumar.M, Zonal Executive member, AILRSA, SWR

Sri. Sasi Kumar Nagappa, Joint General Secretary, AILRSA SWR,

At Hubli Crew Booking depot the following were addressed.

Sri. K Thirumala Achari, Divisional Secretary, AILRSA Hubli Division,

Sri Donalraj, Vice President, AILRSA SWR

Sri Dhananjay Kumar, Vice President, AILRSA, Hubli Division



BIBEK DEBROY COMMITTEE REPORT:



The Dr.Bibek Debroy report on restructuring Indian railways will have far reaching disastrous consequences to the Indian Railways and railway men.



It recommends unbundling Indian Railways:



Indian Railway Infrastructure Corporation with track, signal and stations should be formed. It should be listed in the share market and in course of time privatised through disinvestment.

Allow private entry in rail operation to compete with IR. Adhani and Ambani must be allowed to run goods and passenger trains in the existing track paying user charges to Infrastructure Company. Private operators should be allowed to fix their own market rate in order to compete.

It should shed many of its non core activities like production units, construction, organisation, RPF, Railway Hospitals, Railway Schools and privatise them. Existing employees should be handed over to private.

Within four years about 2.57 lakh employees are retiring from Railways, do not fill these vacancies. Stop all modes of recruitment including compassionate ground appointment, LARGESSE and bungalow peons.

Settlement amount payable should be given in the form of Bullet Bonds for 20-30 years which means you won’t even get interest in the period and neither will you even get a loan on it.

In sixth 5 year plan government investment in IR amounted to 75% of total investment. Current year it is only 46%. But Govt takes away from railway revenue Rupees 5 to 6 Thousand Crores as dividend. Govt does not meet the expense of Railways for meeting social cost of tuning Rs 21,000 crores.

IR critically needs an investment of Rs 5 lakh crores to complete its ongoing infrastructure projects of New lines, gauge conversion, doubling, electrification etc . It needs an investment of Rs. 81,450 crore to complete Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridors. For Coach and Locomotive factories it needs 1 lakh crore rupees. As per the recommendation of Dr. ANIL KAKODKAR (HLSRC) ON RAILWAY SAFETY, an Investment OF Rs 1 lakh crore is needed. As per SAM PITRODA committee report an investment of Rs 5.69 lakh crore is needed for modernization of Indian Railways. The planning commission estimated that railways need an investment of Rs 35 lakh crore for 20 years from the year 2012 to 2032. Earlier Kumari. Mamata Banerjee in her VISION 2020, drafted in the year 2009 had forecast an investment requirement of Rs 14 lakh crores in a span of 10 years.

All these recommendations will exist only on paper.



What Dr.Bibek Debroy stresses:



According to Bibek Debroy, ”yes, private has not responded, even after 7 years of opening FDI, did not come for erecting engine factories either at Madhepura or Marohra. But they will not come in the present scenario. They will come only after the restructuring we have proposed are implemented”.



“The government is rightfully optimistic about bringing foreign direct investment into the railway sector, as the benefits are significant: the induction of cutting edge technology and international management practices that can dramatically help to modernize IR.



However, foreign investment will not come under the present scenario. It will come only if the railway sector is reformed along the lines discussed in this Report and the change in incentives and structure as proposed in this Report are put in place. The railway sector will then become worthy of foreign investment in ancillary production units, terminals, signaling, logistics and the operation of trains”



ARGENTINA AND BRITISH PRIVATISATION EXPERIENCE:



Argentina Railways was privatised when it had 47,000 route Kilo meters and 95,000 employees. After privatisation most of the railway lines were closed as loss making and now there remains only a meagre 8,000 km and 15,000 employees. Even in 8000 km, rail is operated with huge subsidy from the government. Now the left government of Argentina has decided to re-nationalise railways.

In Britain the autonomous State-owned Corporation, Rail Track plc, set up in 1993 to manage infrastructure, collapsed in the year 2001 under the heavy burden of enormous expenditure and poor recoveries from private train operators. Its successor, Network Rail, saw its debt burden further rise tremendously from about £9,600 million in the year 2002-03 to about £30,000 million in the year 2012, with interest payments exceeding track maintenance expenses. Track access charges were continually lowered upon demands by the private operators, further reducing incomes. Following EU principles, the entire debt burden was later transferred to the State budget. Alas! Today UK taxpayers painfully bear double the burden they had before privatisation!

A total number of 2,363 stations and 266 routes have been closed as unprofitable. On an average, British fares are 30 percent higher than in continental Europe where many rail services such as in France and Germany are run by State-owned corporations. Incidentally, these State-owned corporations also operate more than half the rail services in the UK. Ironically, the only State-run rail service left in the UK, East Coast Rail, is among the most profitable, and the Conservative government is hell bent on privatising it. Now a referendum in Britain has favoured (68%) re- nationalisation of RAIL OPERATIONS also.