Trade Unions oppose curtailing of Railway Boards strength

The Secretariat of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet issued a notification on 02/09/2020 reducing the number of Railway Board Members from 8 to 5. The Railway Board Chairman has been appointed as the CEO of the Railway Board. Earlier in the name of reforms in Indian Railways, the Cabinet approved reducing the strength of Railway Board Members from 8 to 5.

The Government have also decided for merging the 8 Indian Railway related services in to a single Central Service which will be known as Indian Railway Management service.Indian PSU contacted Shri.C.Srikumar, General Secretary of the All India Defence Employees Federation who is also closely associated with the Railway Trade Unions and asked his views about the above decision of the Government. He was critical about the Government’s attitude towards the common man’s transport of the country. The Government have already invited request for qualification (RFQ) from Private parties for operating Train services from 109 origin destination pairs of routes through introduction of 151 Trains.

Shri.Srikumar further stated that  the private sector will come forward only to operate the trains on the most profitable routes and unprofitable routes will be left to the Railway Board. This will result in Railways facing huge loss and will become sick. The private players will be given a free hand in fixing the train fare leading to a situation that Railways will be out of reach of the common man. Trade unions of Railways are already on a war path against privatisation, abolition of posts and non-filling up of the vacancies etc.