No. IV/SR/20 t4/P art lll

Dated:19/03/2016

The Chairman, Railway Board, New Delhi Dear Sir. Sub:

Attempts of the Railway Ministry for restructuring Railways, Railway Board vi s-d-visaggressivesteptowardslrrivatization-reg.

As you are aware, the first train on Indian Railways was rolled out from Mumbai to Thane and covereda distanceof 34 kms. Sincethen, the network of Indian Railways has grown tremendously and presently the I.R.'s route length is over 65000 kms., with a fleet of over 10,000Locomotives,about69000passengercoachesand2.5lakh freight wagonsfor providing servicesto the Nation. The Indian Railways is a state-ownedenterprise,totally operatedby the Governmentof India through Ministry of Railways. It is one of the world's largesttransportationinfrastructures, responsiblefor carrying over 840 crore passengersper annumor more than 2.5 crore passengers per day besidesover I 100 million tonnesfreight traffic in a year. The Indian Railways is a self reliant organization, has its own Production Units for manufacturingof Locomotives, wagons and coaches- producedat severallocationswithin the Country. IR is also engaged in manufacturing of majority of its rolling stock and heavy engineeringcomponentsin different ProductionUnits situatedon lndian Railways and controlled directly by the Railway Ministry (Railway Board). Of late, the Foderationsare facing new developments,wherein the Governmentof India (Ministry of Railways) hasbeen aggressivelypursuing the policies of pivatization and marching aheadto restructureand reorganizethe tried, trusted& well establishedIR systemin the nameof "transformation". Train sets are being imported from abroad without even consulting the Federationsand their maintenancehas also been decided to be handed over for 13 years to private comp?nJ..Two Production Units at Madhepuraand Marhaurahave been given to NOS Elstom and G.E. with assuredoff take df '8$'Electric Locos and in Diesel Locos with 13 years maintenance.Thesedecisionswould naturallv disturb industrialrelations. 'Conld.Page...2

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//2// The Federationsdesire to mention that the working of Indian Railways is very complex having vibrant infrastructure systemto serve the needsof the people and ensureunintemrpted movement of trains round the clock on all days. IR has strong workforce of over 1.3 million employees in various categories and has been working with devotion to run the system successfully in achieving the targets of freight and passengermovement every year. Indian Railways has a proud record of "no loss of man days" during the past over four decades. The Federationswhile explaining the complexities of Railways' working and unique nature of duties of various categoriesof railway employeesled by different departmentshave tried to impress upon on various Committees,more particularly Bibek Debroy Committeethat separatingthe policy making functions from the operationswill lead to chaosas the in-chargesof the operationsare the baseauthoritiesfor functioning the system.It is however,unfortunatethat f,,

the inputs given by the Federations are not finding place in the report of Bibek Debroy Committee. The Federationsare of the view that the Bibek Debroy Committeehas not deeply analyzedthe lndiafr Railways working its uniqueness,complexitiesand critical role as life line of the Nation. What really neededfor I.R., is elimination of bottle necks, quick measuresfor ensuring de-congestion,strengtheningof Railway tracks, enhancementof speeds,ensurethroughput for unintemrpted flow of trains. Theseare the vital areaswhich needto be addressedon priority for improving efficiency level. Any step of meddling with the existing well built systemwith the new name of reorganizationor strucfural changeswould be counter-productiveand would harm the existing running system. The Federatiorisconvey with pain that the culture of "Railway family'' and loyalty to the railways is gradually vanishing as the outsourcedstaff are loyal only to the contractualvalues and not to the inherited "culture" of values required for survival and developmentof Rail industry.for the causeof Nation. Contd.Page...3

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il3il' Elegtrification is the real future of every systemworld over. Be it in urban transport,rural electrification, nuclear or hydro, solar or even e-Rickshaw. It is sad to point out that IR's priorities seem to be different. IR intends Diesel Locos to ply trains under 25 KY OHE. But Diesel-cum-ElectricLoco, at twice the cost of a simple Locomotivesof samepower can be manufacturedin CLW and DLW._High speedtrains, heavy haul, heavy suburbantraffic, heavy mineral traffic circuits, even Metro Railways, the contributions of the electrical engineering professionalsin the world get recognizedandneedto be encouragedon Indian Railways as well. It has also been observedthat some rcorganizationprocessis on in Railway Board which in the coming daysparticularly in Electrical and Mechanical.It will have harmful consequences should be necessaryin all fairness, not to resort to these steps without consulting organized labour, otherwisethe implementationmay becomeproblematicand complicated. The Railway Board was constituted decadesback with the specific purpose of policy formation and planning. Its role needs to be redefined while the operationpart be left to the Zonal Railways to avoid Board members getting busy with the matters of transfers,postings, punctuality monitoring, allotment of rakes for freight movementbesideshostsof other activities. These powers may be delegatedto the Additional Members, DGs etc., while policy planning needsto be dealt with at the level of CRB and Board Members. Suitable changesneed to be consideredto facilitate Railway Board to take collective decisionson policy mattersand where differenceof opinion emerges,the majority opinion shall prevail. Laying of double,third line etc., for removing congestionshouldbe given highestpriority to maximize the use of line capacity.The saturatedRailway tracks should be given highest priority to augm6nt line capacity. For the purpose, Central Governmentmay be requestedto invest capital. The terminals shouldbe strengthenedfor improving turn round of the rolling stock for its optimumutilization. The proposalsrelating to laying of new lines should be reviewed and those which are unwantedshould be scrapped.The need of new lines proposalsshouldbe consideredonly when theseare financially viable, actually neededand where expectedrate of return is satisfactory.The projects which have only social and political considerations,should not be thrusted upon the '

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Railways. The cost of constfdction and rnaintenangeof any such assetshouldbe reimbursedby the Central Govemmentorby fully funding the same. Contd. Page ...4

/t4il Paneli'of GMs, PHoDs, DRMs etc., should be drawn well in advancei.e. three months before the occurrenceof vacancy.The selectionprocedureshould be transparentand selection shouldbe held in time to avoid grievancesand to eliminatescopeof manipulations.Thereshould in order to encouragetalented nst be any extensionof servicebeyond the age of superannuation officials in the system. The Federationstherefore, request the Railway Ministry to take measuressuggested above and at the same time urge upon the Govemment (Railway Ministry) not to pursue the policies of pnvatization/outsourcingin the name of "liberalization" and "transformation"as the sameare going to prove counter-productiveand would pushthe Indian Railwaysdecadesback. Federationshope that there shall be detailedconsultationson all policy issuesetc., "The for arriving at conclusionsin the interest of Railways and its workforce. The Railway Ministry may kindly take note that the railway employeesare disappointedover non-rectificationof VI CPC anomalies, non-implementation of agreementsreachedwith the Federationsincluding reversal of New Pension Scheme.The ietrograde recommendationsof 7ft CPC have hurt the railway staff, consequently deep sense of resentment is growing among cross section of workforce, leading to atrnosphere of agitation. The Federations therefore urge Railway , Ministry's interventionto resolveall mattersthrough seriousdialoguewith the Federations. Yours faithfully,

a Gopal Mishra) AIRF Copyto the ExecutiveDirector(lR), RailwayBoard,New Delhi. copy to the GeneralSecretaries of affiliatedUnionsof NFIR. MediaCentreA.,lFIR.

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-(M. Raghavaiah) - | GeneralSecretary NFIR