8:33 AM
The Emergence of AILRSA
Birth of Firemen’s Council and the formative struggles
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Thursday, August 20, 2020
10:05 AM
c.sunish
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Railway Privatisation Cannot Be Allowed
Hemalata
Indian Railways is the lifeline of our country’s economy. It is a part of the life of crores of our people. It is the fourth largest rail network in the world, carrying more than 2.3 crore people from one place to another and traversing, on an average, 30 lakh km every day. Till today, it is the world’s largest railway system under a single management, the government of India.
In addition to its key role in our economic development and in providing an affordable mode of transport to the common people, Indian Railways has important contribution in developing the unity and integrity of the nation. It is this sector, along with the entire public sector, that the Modi led BJP government has placed at the altar of the private corporates, both domestic and foreign.
Privatising the railways, as part of the now discredited LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation) process, was on the agenda of the ruling classes since the official advent of neoliberal regime in our country.
During the last around three decades, policies adopted by successive governments were aimed at diluting the responsibility of the government in providing basic and essential services to its citizens like health, education, affordable transport, communication etc. All these are being increasingly handed over to private players for their profit maximisation. This process reached the pinnacle now under the second tenure of the Modi led BJP regime.
In its first stint in governance, in 2014 itself, the Modi I government set up a ‘High Level Committee’ led by the NITI Ayog member, Bibek Debroy. This committee expressed its unhappiness about the failure to rope in private players despite repeated attempts by the previous government. It recommended the destructive unbundling of the Indian Railways and handing it over piecemeal to the private corporates. The government announced 100% FDI in almost all the activities performed by Indian Railways – construction, operations, maintenance, rolling stock, dedicated lines, train sets etc.
Within days after returning to power in 2019, the Modi II government announced labour law amendments, privatisation and creating land banks as its priorities to be taken up within 100 days. Through this, it had made clear its intentions to put the country on sale, including to foreign monopolies. This, despite its coming to power by raising pseudo nationalist slogans and positioning itself as the only patriotic force in the country during the Parliamentary elections. The 100 day action plan of the Indian Railways included corporatisation of the production units and other services. Privatisation of railway stations has already been started in its first tenure.
It is appalling that this BJP government has chosen the period of lockdown, imposed under the National Disaster Management Act, ostensibly to contain Covid 19, to fast track all these measures. Crores of workers have lost their jobs due to the lockdown. The young are staring at an uncertain and bleak future. Economy, which was already on the slide before Covid 19, is plunging into an abyss. People at large are in distress due to the health crisis and the economic crisis. They are bound down by lockdown protocols that prevent people from coming together en masse to lodge their protests against the attacks on their livelihood and against measures intended to mortgage the interests of the nation. The BJP government apparently considers this the best time, best opportunity to be grabbed to serve its corporate masters.
Hailing the measures to suppress workers’ rights taken by the Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat state governments as one of the ‘boldest and bravest initiatives’, the NITI Ayog CEO, Amitabh Kant wrote ‘It’s now or never: States are driving bold reforms. We will never get this opportunity again, seize it’. This is a clear proof of how the ruling classes look at the situation that pushed crores of our toiling people into distress and pauperised them – as an ‘opportunity’ to further exploit workers, suppress their rights, and loot the country!
The BJP government is exactly following their advice. It has ‘seized’ this opportunity to fast track measures to privatise and dismantle the public sector and hand over all our country’s wealth to the big corporates, domestic and foreign. It has ‘seized’ this ‘now or never’ situation to direct all state governments to change labour laws in favour of the employers, thus turning workers into virtual slaves.
The fast tracking of measures to privatise the railways has to be seen in this context. The BJP government has invited ‘Request For Qualification (RFQ) to the private corporates, Indian and foreign, for operating 151 passenger trains between 109 pairs of major stations, over the Indian Railways tracks. The 151 private trains will operate in 12 clusters including Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Prayagraj, Secunderabad, Howrah, and Chennai.
Split and Sell
Bibek Debroy committee recommended separation of the roles of policy, production, regulation and operation, totally neglecting the synergy that is required between these processes. This was deliberately done to facilitate privatisation the railways piecemeal.
The Modi I government has embarked upon implementing the disastrous recommendations of Bibek Debroy committee in right earnest.
It gave up the practice of presenting a separate railway budget and to merge it with the general budget, as per the committee’s recommendation.
The Union Cabinet of Modi
I government has approved setting of the Railway Development Authority (RDA)
through an executive order, as per Bibek Debroy committee’s recommendation. The
RDA will fix passenger fares and freight charges on the basis of the costs. It
will provide access of the existing railway tracks, built with people’s money
to the private train operators. One of its objectives is to ‘encourage’
providing a ‘level playing field’ and safeguarding the interests of the private
players.
Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited, Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation, Indian Railways Rolling Stock Company etc have already been constituted, each as an independent autonomous body, not under the control of the Railway Board. The government has decided to corporatise the production units, to facilitate their privatisation.
The most important aspect in the smooth running of a big network of railways in the country is that every single activity has to be carried out in maximum coordination and combination with the other. Obviously, this synergy will be lost if these functions are split and handed over to different entities having no coordination with one another, and sometimes even competing with one another.
It is for this reason that the British, who constructed the railways in their own commercial interests to facilitate transport of goods from and to the ports, had all the different functions, including production, repairing and maintenance workshops, printing presses etc under the single administrative control. Bibek Debroy committee’s recommendation to break Indian Railways into pieces so that the private corporates can easily grab the pieces will be disastrous for the entire railway system and particularly for the common people. But, the Modi government, committed as it is to private corporate interests, brushed this aside and decided to split the jeopardising the smooth functioning and safety of the passengers.
Dubious Arguments
The argument in favour of private participation is that private participation it would increase efficiency, provide ‘world class travel experience’ to the people, reduce journey time, provide high standard of services, maintain punctuality, improve safety etc. The need for waitlisted tickets will be eliminated when private trains can be made available ‘on demand’. In addition, it is argued that privatisation would generate employment and the government would be able to earn revenue through haulage charges, energy charges and by sharing the gross revenue of the private participants.
These are not arguments supported by facts.
Safety and Efficiency
We have witnessed deaths and grievous injuries due to industrial accidents, mainly caused by absolute negligence of the owners. An estimated 20000 people in the surrounding areas of Bhopal choked to death and thousands more developed severe health complications and continue to suffer for decades due to leaking of a deadly gas at the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal. Recently 12 people in the nearby villages died and over 1000 became sick due to gas leak in the South Korean LG Polymers chemical plant near Visakhapatnam. These are only a couple of examples in our country where big multinational corporations are involved. Many such examples can be cited across the world.
Hundreds of industrial accidents have been taking place killing thousands of workers every year in our country alone due to the utter negligence of safety by the profit greedy private employers, in their attempt to save money. To expect that safety in railways would improve by privatisation is nothing but a crude attempt to deceive people.
Punctuality, efficiency etc do not depend on ownership – public or private. These depend upon the efficient maintenance of the tracks, signalling system, the rolling stock etc as well as the recruitment of skilled personnel in adequate numbers, and above all, effective synergy between the different functions of railway operation.
The government has neglected all these. It has not implemented the recommendations of the Task Force on Safety, submitted in 2017 or that of the ‘White Paper’ of the Railway Ministry in 2015. It has been estimated that 4500 kms of old track need to be replaced every year. But this is not done on the pretext of lack of financial resources. As a result backlog goes on increasing. Replacement of signal gear that has become over aged is not being done, on the same pretext.
Employment
Old tracks and old signalling systems require more workers for maintenance. But, instead of recruiting and deploying the necessary staff for this, the government has reduced workforce. Sanctioned posts have been cut down.
Immediately after the
announcement of the Railways to hand over 109 routes to the private sector, on
July 2, 2020 the Ministry of Railways issued a letter to all General Managers
of Indian Railways including production units informing them of its decision to
freeze creation of new posts. It directed them to review posts created in last
two years but not yet filled up, surrender the newly created posts if
recruitment has not taken against those posts and surrender 50% of the existing
vacancies. All these are being done in the name of ‘economic measures’. The
government has also reduced all operation and maintenance activities across all
departments on the railways by 15%.
Earlier, on 19th June 2020, the government has circulated updated austerity measures to all Zonal Railways. These include, among others, review and closure of uneconomic branch lines to the extent possible; critical review and curtailment of outsourcing activities, especially OBHS (On Board Housekeeping Services), linen management, station cleaning, lifts and escalators manning, station announcement etc should be critically reviewed and curtailed. It has decided to cut down overtime and travel allowances for employees by 50% and cut down other controllable allowances by 33% to 50%.
This drastic curtailment of existing posts will more than offset whatever posts would be created by the private players. Besides, as already being witnessed, the new jobs that will be created by the private sector will be of precarious nature like contract workers, fixed term employees, apprentices, trainees etc without any job security, income security or social security. Women are employed in the Tejas Express, the private train running between Delhi and Lucknow, as attendants. These women work for around 18 hours a day, for Rs 15000 per month. They were punished on the pretext that their makeup was not up to the mark! This is an example of how employees, particularly women, are treated by the private companies. Permanent jobs in the railways for our children will be a pipe dream.
Losses
One of the arguments for privatisation is that the government cannot incur huge losses on the railways; it cannot go on spending ‘taxpayers’ money’ to subsidise it.
The fact is that nowhere in the world does transport meant for common public, rail or road, runs on profit. It is the responsibility of an elected government to ensure that all basic necessities of daily life are accessible to its citizens. Affordable public transport is part of daily needs in a civilised society.
In addition, the so called ‘losses’ in passenger transport are compensated in other areas. Transporting raw materials, including coal and other minerals etc for production of goods, electricity generation etc and finished products for marketing, the subsidised transport of essential commodities etc are indispensible aspects of the overall economy of the country. Railways play a key role in this entire process. Hence so called loss in public transport like railways is more than compensated by the gains of the entire economy.
According to E Sreedharan, former Managing Director of DMRC, popularly known as the ‘Metro Man’, nowhere in the world has the PPP model in construction and maintenance of Metro rail completely succeeded. He said that it is foolish for the government to invest all the money in setting up infrastructure and then hand over operations to private parties and allow them to enjoy the revenues. But, the BJP government, in its eagerness to serve its corporate masters by handing over the country’s wealth, is not ready to take sane advice from any quarter.
We must remember that private corporates would come to run trains for making profits; not to serve the people. This is proved hundreds of times in many sectors, in our country, across the world. Corporate bosses themselves have declared this unambiguously many times.
World Class Travel Experience: For Whom?
The media is full of stories that privatisation of railways would provide ‘world class travel experience’ to people. What this ‘world class travel experience’ means is not clear.
But what is clear is that the private players would be allowed to fleece the passengers.
The passenger and freight charges will, henceforward, be decided on the basis of cost. At present, passenger fares comprise 53% of the cost with 47% of the cost being subsidised. This subsidy will now be given a go by. Hence, by this account alone, the passenger fares will almost be doubled. In addition, there will be no concessions for senior citizens, children, physically handicapped, cancer patients, students etc like now. Passes will not be allowed. Indian Railways, till now an affordable mode of transport for the poor and toiling people, will no more be so. The passenger fares in Indian Railways will be increased to provide a ‘level playing field’ for the corporates so that they can compete with the Indian Railways and earn profits.
Private players can also use the present tracks laid with public money, without making any extra investment. They have to pay only access charge. The concept of subsidising traffic of essential commodities will also be removed.
Private players cannot be expected to provide subsidy. In addition, like in the airlines at present, passengers have to pay for preferred seat options; and also for baggage and cargo, if these are not included in the ticket fare. And of course, on board services like catering, bed rolls, content on demand, wi fi etc all will be chargeable.
In
the ‘Tejas Train’, which is being operated by private sector through IRCTC
between Delhi and Lucknow, the ticket fare is more by Rs 700 to Rs 900. The
running time is only 10 minutes less and one stoppage extra.
In the same train, the dynamic fare goes up to Rs 4,700. At present, for 1,000 km, the Railways are charging from Rs 700 to Rs 900; for the same distance the private players will be charging Rs 2,200. The passenger has to shoulder this load.
By increasing speed, cutting down on running time, they want to attract the people who at present travel by air. The private players will also decide stoppages, which will be very few. In short, private trains are meant for people who have the money and can pay. They are for the rich who take the rail route to places not accessible by air. The so called ‘world class travel experience’, if any at all, is for those who can pay; not for the crores of common people who use Indian Railways regularly, as part of their daily lives.
Another
argument in favour of introduction of private trains is that the huge waiting
lists will be cleared, by increasing the capacity. In 2018 -19, Indian Railways
could clear only 16% of the 8.85 crore wait listed passengers. Railways have
increased seats by 5.35 crores. But out of these 70% are in AC coaches and only
30% in sleeper coaches, while the share of demand for seats in sleeper coaches
far exceeds that in AC coaches. More seats should be made available in the
sleeper coaches to reduce the waitlisted numbers. But the government is not
interested to cater to the needs of the common people. Privatisation, with
profit as the motive, will not solve this problem. Rather it will make railway
services inaccessible to the common people, particularly the poor.
Privatisation
of Railway Stations
The move to hand over major railway stations to private parties in the name of ‘station development’ through PPP mode has already started. The government has identified 400 railway stations for making them ‘world class’. Of these 50 were to be taken up on priority basis. Already tenders have been called for redevelopment of 23 major stations including New Delhi, Mumbai, Howrah, Chennai, Bengaluru, Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Calicut etc. Habibganj station in Bhopal has become the first station in the country to be handed over to the Bansals for development under the PPP model. The private contractors who will manage the station will be called Station Facilitation Managers (SFM). The contract will be given to SFM in lieu of lease premium charge and lease rent. The lease will be for 45 years.
According to NITI Ayog CEO, Amitabh Kant, these railway stations should be developed ‘in the model of Delhi, Mumbai airports, where investors would have freedom to do what they want to...’ So, that is what ‘world class’ means. in short, railway stations will be out of bounds for the common people, for the poor; two wheelers and three wheelers will have no place for parking in the vicinity of railway stations; only four wheelers.
The entire station along with the land around it will be handed over to the private company, which along with the Indian Railway Station Development Corporation floated for the purpose, will develop the station. According to the available information, the existing employees in the station would be transferred and the private developers would deploy their own employees. Only railway tickets and operation would remain with the railway authorities. All the rest including platform tickets, food courts, parking areas, advertising rights etc would be given to the private entities.
The private entities would be free to use the land, and that is one of the major attractions, for real estate development. They can construct hotels, hospitals, spas, shopping malls, convention centres etc in the land around the station. The poor rickshaw and auto drivers who have been using the spaces around the station to park their vehicles and seek passengers would become out of bounds for them. The common passengers who use their services will lose the convenience of finding affordable local transport closer to the station. The passengers will be allowed to wait only in the ‘lounges’ or ‘concourses’ by paying fees, but not on the platforms. The common passengers, coming from distant places cannot wait on the platforms like now, if they come a little early or if the train is late. They have to cough up money.
Thus, this ‘world class’ again is only for those who can pay; for the rich; not for the common people and the poor who will be deprived of the only affordable transport available to them now.
Already Habibganj railway station
in Madhya Pradesh and Gandhinagar in Gujarat are being developed under this
agreement. Surat, Chandigarh, Anand Vihar, Baiyappanahalli stations are also
reportedly being developed in this way.
A built-up area of 54 lakh sq ft is allowed for commercial development. No land use change and prior environmental clearance are required.
Production
Units
Last year, the government took a decision that the Indian Railways will hive off all its production units and associated workshops like ICF Perambur, RCF Kapurthula, Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli into a corporation called Indian Railways Rolling Stock Company. All the production units are functioning efficiently, but even then the government wants to convert these production units into PSUs so that it can be sold out.
We have 6 production units, which are capable of manufacturing diesel and electric locomotives, LHB (Linke Hofman Busch) coaches, fit to run at 160 km per hour and are upgradable to 200 km per hour speed. The Indian Railways called these production units its ‘gems’. But, now the BJP government is not utilising their capacities. Instead it is importing diesel and electric locomotives from foreign companies like General Electric and Alstorm at a much higher cost. This exposes the hypocrisy of the government’s talk of ‘Make in India’ as well as ‘Atmanirbharta’ (self reliance). General Electric has been given the contract to ‘supply and maintain’ diesel locomotives, to ‘deliver’ 100 locomotives a year on an average. They will not be manufactured in India, only assembled and maintained at a far higher cost to the country.
Production units are rightly claimed as ‘the gems of Indian Railways’, by the Ministry of Railways itself. The 6 production units of Indian Railways manufacture more than 600 diesel and electric locos and more than 3000 coaches per year. The government itself acknowledges the advantages of having in house manufacture of rolling stock. Our production units assimilate and adopt new technology and produce locomotives and coaches at a much lower cost. It is also cheaper to maintain the locomotives and coaches in our own factories. They enable import substitution and promote ancillary units as well. Thus they not only promote ‘Make in India’ in the true sense but also cost less, and generate employment.
But despite all high decibels noise about ‘Make in India’, the BJP led Modi government is determined to dismantle and destroy our capacity to ‘Make in India’.
General Electric, a huge American multinational corporation has been given the contract for setting up a diesel locomotive unit in Marhaura in Bihar. The contract was approved in 2014 when the UPA was in power and was finally signed by the NDA government. As per the contract Indian Railways would buy 1000 diesel locomotives from General Electric over 10 years. It was reported in the media that the Railways was discussing a proposal to exit this diesel locomotive project in view of its plans for near total electrification of tracks by 2022, to combat pollution. General Electric issued a stern warning that any such decision would ‘cause the government to incur substantial costs’. The government was compelled to retract. The Railway Minister had to immediately issue a statement that the project was on track. This is how the BJP government allows itself to be arm twisted by big multinational corporations.
It is reported that under the contract, General Electric will ‘supply and maintain’ diesel locomotives of 4500 HP and 6000 HP. The first locomotive has reportedly ‘arrived’ from the USA at the Mundra Port in Gujarat. The CEO of GE South Asia has reportedly said that they plan to ‘deliver 100 locomotives per year on an average’. It is obvious that GE is not going to manufacture the diesel locomotives in India; they will only be assembled and maintained. What an innovative way to ‘Make in India’ indeed!
Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), the production unit in Varanasi - one of the ‘gems of Indian Railways’ - has been producing diesel locomotives and continuously upgrading them. It has indigenously produced India’s first diesel locomotive engine of 5500 HP, ‘Bheem’, in 2015 through a joint effort with RDSO (Research Design and Standards Organisation) of the Indian Railways with support from EMD (Electro Motive Diesel) of the USA. It has been manufacturing 4500 HP diesel locomotives. It has set a new record by manufacturing 330 diesel locomotives in 2015-16 against the target of 320. It was felicitated by the then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu as the ‘best production unit’.
Why should we import diesel locomotives when our own Varanasi Diesel Locomotive Works can produce them, at a far lower cost that GE? Why should we import when our Varanasi Diesel Locomotive Works, situated in the Prime Minister’s own Parliamentary constituency, possesses the capacity of supplying more than 300 locomotives every year compared to only 100 by GE? Why should the government spend more money for buying from these multinationals instead of investing in further development of our research and indigenous capabilities?
The
deals of GE and the French firm Alstom has been given the contract for electric
locomotive unit in Madhepura, together are worth Rs 40000 crore. The cost of
locos from these two units is estimated to be 2-3 times of those being
manufactured by our own manufacturing units. A former member of Railway Board,
RC Acharya said that the country saved Rs 20000 crores annually through
manufacturing the rolling stock within the country. In addition maintenance of
the locos will also be done in the sheds run by their own companies. These
measures are bound to lead to the closure of the existing production units and
workshops of Indian Railways. Thousands of workers are likely to lose their
jobs. Is this job creation or job destruction?
The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai has turned out its ‘first complete state of the art LHB coach’ in 2014 and is getting ready to ‘complete switch over to production of stainless steel LHB main line coaches in the next five years’. It has been manufacturing Train-18 Coaches for Rs 98 crore with 160 kmph speed, meeting all the required specifications. Recognising this achievement, the Prime Minister himself changed the name from Train-18 to ‘Vande Bharat’. But now, the order for 45 Train-18 given to ICF was stopped by the Railway Board.
The Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala is building LHB coaches fit to run at 160 km per hour, which are upgradable to 200 km per hour. The Rae Bareily coach factory has the capacity to produce 1000 LHB coaches a year. But its orders for manufacture have been cut down to only 150 LHB coaches a year, obviously at the direction of the Ministry. The government is not placing orders for its full capacity utilisation. Instead, the entire production of wagons has been handed over to private companies.
Cutting down production in our own units, keeping our maintenance sheds idle and signing contracts with big foreign monopolies –is this BJP’s brand of ‘nationalism’ and ‘patriotism’. This is against the interests of the nation and its people. We call it anti national and anti people.
The government has also decided to close down the printing presses which the Indian Railways has been maintaining in various parts of the country. Probably this too is meant to benefit the printing presses in the private sector which would get huge orders for printing material that a mammoth organisation like the Indian Railways would require.
Withdrawal of Services
It is to be remembered that Bibek Debroy committee recommended that railways should develop stations that cater to more than 25000 passengers daily and to close down stations that register 50% dip in ticket sales in a two year period. As per these recommendations, many busy stations would become ineligible for infrastructure development. The government is reported to be also considering whether it should continue with small stations that are run on contract, i.e. stations where there are only ticket sale and cleanliness activities. It is also reported to be considering a proposal to restart only profitable train services after the lockdown. These measures will definitely deny and deprive hundreds of thousands of people in our villages and small towns of the train services on which they depend to go to the nearby towns and cities on their day to day trade and other requirements.
If the government, elected by the people and which should be accountable to the people resorts to such measures –neglecting safety of passengers and employees, withdrawing service to the poor and common people, what would prevent the private corporates to take up ‘economic measures’ to increase their profits?
None of these arguments, of the ‘efficiency’ or ‘safety’ or ‘employment generation’ of private sector, are valid. It is just the opposite; nothing but a ploy to discredit the Indian Railways, and projecting private participation as a credible alternative to mislead the people into accepting privatisation of the Railways. Neither does international or national experience support these arguments.
Global
Experience
July 2020
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
- 10:17 AM
- c.sunish
- No comments
Don’t Destroy Indian Railways in the Name of Reforms
Basudeb Acharia, Vice President, CITU
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
- 7:01 PM
- c.sunish
- No comments
PRIVATISATION OF RAILWAYS – A DESTRUCTIVE MOVE, THE NATION IS BEING PUT ON SALE
Dr.K Hemalata President CITU
Thursday, August 13, 2020
- 7:43 AM
- c.sunish
- No comments
Excerpts from History of Railway Trade Union Movement a Study by Nrisingha Chakrabarthy.
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