RAIL BACHAO – DESH BACHAO

Railway Federations appealing to public and passengers to cooperate with them

All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF), the oldest and largest federation on the Indian Railways and National Federation of Indian Railwayman (NFIR) has been at the forefront fighting for the well being of the Indian Railways, its work force and passengers.

Indian Railways since founded in 1853 has been serving the Indian populace 24/7 uninterrupted and has become the integral part of every individual traveling within India with its dedicated service reaching out to every nook and corner of the country.

Indian Railways, with its 1.3 million dedicated workforce, has been serving the Nation with more than 12,600 passenger trains carrying 23 million passengers and 7,421 freight trains carrying 3 Million Tonnes (MT) daily.

Indian Railways is amongst the world’s largest rail networks with 1,15,000 track kilometers spread over 7,349 stations distributed in 17 zones. The infrastructure of the Indian Railways includes 239,281 freight wagons, 59,713 passenger coaches and 9,549 locomotives, which are manufactured, maintained and repaired in the Production Units and Workshops.

The Indian Railways has been serving for more than 165 years with 295 varied types of concessions for passengers belonging to different categories, such as Military Concessions, Senior Citizens, Freedom Fighters, Cancer Patients, Divyang Passengers and also those accompanying them etc., without any profitability and just with service motive at heart.

Indian Railways provides cheapest, safest, fastest and most comfortable journey as compared to any other travel mode in India.

Similarly, the freight has been carried in a cheapest, safest and fastest manner reaching their destination with an integral insurance element. Over the years; Indian Railways has turned out to provide add-on benefits, such as free internet at the stations, escalators, lifts, clean wash rooms, clean stations with clear LED sign and display boards.

All these being made available with just one ticket; whether it is a platform ticket or a short journey suburban travel ticket.

All of us are aware that, the present Government has been taking some drastic decisions, leading to public unrest. First Air India, BSNL, BPCL, Concor and now the mighty Indian Railways.

After knowing the above facts and also knowing a few more; we are sure that, you will support our campaign since we feel that, you the customers, are important stakeholders of the Indian Railways and not just we the workforce.

Some steps that have already been taken to destroy the lifeline of the Nation are:-

1. Privatization of the Indian Railways by handing over 150 trains and 50 stations to private players. It all started by selling away Tejas Express to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Ex. New Delhi – Lucknow and back. This train stops at just two stations and covers the distance in 6 hours 30 minutes. The ticket costs Rs 2450/- (Executive Class) and Rs 1755 (AC Chair Car), whereas Shatabdi Express, run by the Indian Railways, Ex. New Delhi – Lucknow and back, stops at five stations and covers the same distance in 6 hours 35 minutes. The ticket costs Rs 1855/- (Executive Class) and Rs 1165/- (AC Chair Car). It is clear that, IRCTC is running with a soul aim of profits and offers none of the 295 concessions as those offered by the Indian Railways.

2. Privatization of stations: Privatization of the stations on Indian Railways started by handing over Habibganj Station to M/s Bansal Pathways Habibganj Private Limited on West Central Railway in the year 2017 and limiting the halting of trains at Bhopal Station. Though all facilities are being made available but at some cost. (Please note that all add-on facilities on Indian Railway Stations are free).

3. Corporatization of all Railway Production Units: The Ministry of Railways has already had a plan to corporatize the Indian Railway Production Units at different places. This will enable the government to sell away Railway Production units to private operators in future and cut down in government employees, thus, cutting down employment in this era of high unemployment. It is time that we wake up since government jobs are becoming a rare commodity in days to come for people belonging to any caste/community.

4. Indian Railways holds large land bank and the government is eyeing to sell away/lease huge land belonging to the Indian Railways to some of its favored parties, citing the reason that the land could be better utilized by these private parties and revenue generated, but the fact is that, the Government is interested in leasing out to some political big wigs in their own party. History has witnessed the ill effects of privatization of a major sector like Railways in some of the developed nations:

(a) United Kingdom: In the year 1989, during the reign of Margaret Thatcher, various businesses under State Owned British Railways were sold-off, and in 1993, under the reign of John Major, the Railways was privatized. Since then, the services have totally deteriorated and the public are suffering, even to this day, by

paying exorbitant money to travel. The Rail Industry is running in huge losses under private operators, even to this day. In U.K., private operators are least concerned with Rail Safety as also they are not taking care of proper maintenance and upkeep of rolling stock and infrastructure with the sole motto of earning more and more profit out of it. The government sometimes has to extend financial support of huge amount to sustain the system. The U.K. Government, at present time, is investing five to six times more on Privatized British Rail System then earlier, when it was in Government control, and moreover, British Rail System was more safe at that time.

(b) Argentina: It is the best example of ill effects of the Rail Privatization, and after serious accidents and big strikes, the Rail was re-nationalized in the year 2015.

(c) New Zealand: One more classic example is of New Zealand Railways that was privatized in 1980, but due to heavy losses it was renationalized in 2008.

(d) Australia: Australia has seen a National Movement of “Give our Track Back”, and the government of Australia has restored back the tracks. In most of the countries, like Russia, Canada, France (51%), Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain etc., after World War II, the Railways were nationalized and are owned by the Government. It is clear that, Railways have flourished and are performing best only under the control and ownership of the Governments, and after a detailed study and exercise, it has been concluded and proved that, privatization experiment has failed miserably in UK and Argentina.

Unfortunately, gullible population in UK and Argentina is suffering due to bad decisions taken by their earlier governments under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. It is unfortunate that, Government in India is blindly following the British policies, even after 72 years of the Independence. Most importantly, safety of 23 million passengers will be compromised by handing over the life line of the Nation into the hands of private operators as we have experienced in the Telecom Sector, wherein the Jio has now turned the tables on the customers by hiking the tariff suddenly. Thus we request you to support us in our fight to stop privatization of the Indian Railways.

WHILE WE CARE FOR YOU AND YOUR SAFETY, IT IS TIME FOR US TO REQUEST YOUR COOPERATION.