Rail unions reject Debroy panel report

Instead, the unions have sought the creation of a Rail Tariff Authority — an entity whose mandate will be strictly limited to tariff-related matters and would be far less powerful than the proposed authority, which the letter denounces as a “super-authority above ministry”.

[related-post]

With the PMO seeking a formal response from the Railway Board on the report, the show of a united front of the unions is not without some prodding from the top level as sources said the current dispensation leading the all-powerful Board is trying to send out the signal to the government that implementing the Debroy panel’s report as it is would be rejected by the unions.

The big idea of corporatising and initiating unbundling of the Railways by separating infrastructure, production and operations and allowing an open access regime for private train operators have also been rejected by the unions. They believe that this would ultimately lead to cornering of profitable business by private operators leaving the national transporter with only unremunerative lines to serve.

The panel’s recommended cure for the current factionalism and departmentalism among the nine Group-A services, by creating two services (Technical and Logistics), has also been rejected by the unions saying this would create “bigger problem of communalism” in the bureaucracy.

The letter also outright opposes the idea of separating the ministry from the Railway Board, as spelled out in the report, on the grounds that it would lead to “over bureaucratisation and red-tapism”. The existing system is time-tested, it says.

Similarly, critical, contentious recommendations like bringing zonal railway construction organisations under existing PSUs and letting private security services enter the arena have also not found favour with the rail union banners.

Taken together, the point-wise objections seek to take away the very sting from the Debroy report.

The unions getting together are the All Indian Railwaymen’s Federation, the National Federation for Indian Railways, the All India Railway Protection Force Association, Federation of Railway Officers’ Association and Indian Railway Promotee Officers’ Association.