A parliamentary panel has pulled up the Railways for not giving satisfactory replies on measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 . Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav told the panel that 63% tickets had been cancelled in March.
According to sources, the ruling BJP members asked Mr. Yadav as to what the Railways was doing to sanitise the air conditioning facility in trains. He was unable to answer, the sources said. He reiterated the announcement made by the Railways to remove blankets and curtains from coaches because they were not washed frequently. Irate members told Mr. Yadav that the Railways, which recently got a payout from LIC worth ₹60,000 crore was accountable to the taxpayer.
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The parliamentary panel on transport, tourism and culture held a meeting to assess the impact of coronavirus on the sector. The meeting was scheduled after Trinamool Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien wrote to the chairman of the standing committee T.G. Venkatesh on the issue.
Presentations were made by Air India Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal, Tourism Secretary Yogendra Tripathi and Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola. Mr. Yadav was pulled up for not being able to answer most of the questions posed by the members, the sources said.
The hotel industry has been severely hit and according to the presentations made during the meeting, hotels have been reporting 80-90% cancellations.
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One of the opposition MPs while appreciating the work done by Air India in bringing back those stranded in coronavirus-affected countries said, “We salute the great work done by Air India in bringing back Indians in this difficult time. In moments of crisis Air India always stands behind the nation. Now at least I hope the government will stop the sale.”
Job losses
The issue of job losses owing to the lock down due to COVID-19 outbreak was also flagged. The recent announcement by GoAir of making its employees go on leave without pay was also raised during the meeting. More than 70% of the tourism industry is hit, 95% of small and medium industries are teetering towards shutdown. “This will lead to mass unemployment, with 2.5 crore direct employees and 2 crore indirect employees going jobless. If their families are taken into account, then up to 20 crore Indians will be impacted because of this job loss,” one of the members said, according to sources.
When an assembly of more than 50 persons is banned in Delhi, the meeting was attended by 75 persons, including parliamentarians and government officials who made the presentation.
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The rules of conduct of standing committee rules out any videoconferencing. The members pointed out that if the standing committee meetings are to continue this rule will have to be amended.
