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The Union Minister of Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad has ruled out privatization of Indian Railways. Addressing a two-day Conference of General Managers of Zonal Railways, Production Units and Kolkata Metro here today, Shri Prasad said he would rather quit than allow privatization. In this connection, he mentioned that private sector would not meet the aspirations of people at large if Railways were privatized, as the cost of operation and services would increase manifold.
The Railway Minister listed the priorities of the Government in the form of safety, security, punctuality and cleanliness of trains and locomotives and directed the General Managers to improve these areas lest punitive action should be taken against them. He asked General Managers that cleanliness in trains and locomotives be improved within a month. All the rollingstock should look pleasant to eyesight. Locomotives should also be made crew-friendly. He also asked General Managers to improve construction quality of Indian Railways. He said that General Managers should strive hard to ensure that public trust in the Railways must not be sapped and security, safety, punctuality and cleanliness of rail services were maintained to the satisfaction of the users.
Talking of the UPA Government’s resolve to make Indian Railways number one Railway in the world, the Minister said that in keeping with the Common Minimum Programme of the Government, the budgetary support to Railways has been increased by additional Rs.1137 crores over and above the already announced in the Railway Budget, 2004-2005 in the full Planning Commission meeting chaired by the Prime Minister yesterday. General Managers were directed to inspect all rail services personally including catering to ensure all-round improvement. He also asked the General Managers to sustain vigilance to plug leakages of revenues in the form of overweight of freight and parcel consignments and their under-charging, ticketless travelling, fraudulent salary and pension payments and inventory control to increase all round earnings of railways. He also asked them to achieve the passenger and freight targets for the current year. He was happy to note that the freight target during the first five months of the current financial year ending August, 2004 was in excess of the target. He also asked them to keep a watchful eye on inventory control to prevent leakages of revenues. Besides, he directed them to ensure that scrapped material were collected at one point in each Zonal Railway and recycled for production of wheels and other components in order to tackle high cost of steel.
The Minister of State for Railways, Shri R. Velu, who also spoke on the occasion, asked the General Managers to ensure that at least two freight and parcel trains were checked by them personally in a month to plug leakages of revenues.
The Minister of State for Railways, Shri Naranbhai J. Rathwa asked General Managers to give personal attention to the priority areas listed by the Government to ensure all-round improvement in rail services to the nation. Earlier, Chairman, Railway Board, Shri R.K. Singh, in his overview expressed the concern of the Government over massive leakages of revenues in the Railways and asked the General Managers to ensure that such mal-practices were minimized to the negligible levels.
The Railway Minister also released a Book Titled ‘THE KOLKATA METRO- Dum Dum-Tollygunge - Design & Construction’. The book deals with the difficulties encountered by Indian Railways engineers in the construction of 16.46 kilometre long Kolkata Metro and how it was an engineering marvel of India and for that pride of the country.
The Railway Minister also gave away shields to various Zonal Railways for their outstanding performance in 2003-2004. These Shields were to be presented to General Managers of Zonal Railways on June 16, 2004 at Kolkata, but the programme was cancelled following a train accident on Konkan Railway. Comprehensive Healthcare Shield was given to Southern Railway, Civil Engineering Shield to Central Railway, Mechanical Engineering Shield to South Central Railway, Electrical Engineering Shield to Northern Railway, Signal & Telecommunication Engineering Shield to West Central Railway, Personnel Management Shield to Western Railway, Stores Shield to Eastern Railway, Security Shield to Eastern Railway, Traffic Transportation Shield to South Western and East Central Railways (Jointly), Accounts and Finance Management Shield to Western Railway, Safety Shield to North Central Railway, Commercial Shield to Northern Railway and Civil Engineering (Construction) Shield to Southern and Northeast Frontier Railway (Construction) (jointly).
The Conference of General Managers has been convened to review railway plan performance for the current financial year and to work out measures for plugging leakages in revenues, as also generating indirect employment to thousands of people.
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