General secretary of All-India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) Shiva Gopal Mishra has said that in violation of the assurance given to railwaymen’s federation about prior consultation before any move towards privatisation, various steps were taken towards privatisation of Railways.
Addressing presspersons here on Friday before the inauguration of the ‘open session’ of the fourth triennial general council of SWR Mazdoor Union, Mr. Mishra said the government was bent on privatising Railways, and several steps had been taken towards facilitating the same.
He said that Railways was the crossroads now as the Union government was keen on handing over the production units to the private sector. “In order to facilitate the same, corporatisation was being done as it is the first step towards privatisation,” he said.
Mr. Mishra alleged that while privatisation had already crept into various sections of Railways, the government now wanted to sell government land, trains, and stations.
Already, steps had been taken to run private trains and an empowered group of secretaries was in the process of finalising terms of reference for handing over 150 pairs of passenger trains and 50 railway stations to private sector, he said.
Pending issues
Instead of resolving the pending issues like scrapping of New Pension Scheme (NPS), increasing minimum wages, providing decent work, stopping exploitation of workers particularly from unorganised sector, increasing income tax limits and other demands, the government was bent on privatising Railways which would not be tolerated by AIRF, he said.
Mr. Mishra said that the national convention of AIRF will be held in Chennai from December 4 and the next course of action to save Railways would be decided after deliberations at the convention.
