
NEW DELHI: The Opposition members on Wednesday said the Centre should not privatise Indian Railways as it will hurt the interest of poor people. They also demanded that concession for senior citizens be restored.
Participating in the debate on the Railways (Amendment) Bill 2024 in the Lok Sabha, Revolutionary Socialist Party MP NK Premachandran urged the government to consider the proposals to revise the age ceiling for senior citizens as that existed in the pre-Covid period, and restore old stoppages.
Remarking that the Bill delegates all powers to the Union government, Premachandran sought what the qualifications and prerogatives for the appointment of Railway Board members would be. He also held that several committees of the Railways have argued about granting them more fiscal autonomy and power.
Opening the debate from the Opposition side, Congress’ Manoj Kumar said that after the passage of the Bill, the government would look for scope to privatise railways.
Railways (Amendment) Bill 2024 proposes to simplify the legal framework by incorporating proposals of the Indian Railway Board Act, 1905 in the Railways Act, 1989. This will eliminate the need to refer to two laws.
Moving the Bill for discussion, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that with this, the efficiency of Indian Railways will improve. Vaishnaw said the number of rail accidents has come down from 171 during the UPA regime to 40 in 2023-24. This year, 29 rail accidents have taken place so far.
He also said that the Rail Budget has been hiked in 10 years from `29,000 crore in 2014 to `2.52 lakh crore.
Participating in the discussion, Samajwadi Party’s Neeraj Maurya said the government should have sent this Bill to an all-party committee for deliberation. He said the government should look at ways to monitor the functioning of Railway Board. “Railways is the lifeline of crores of people. Do not take the privatisation route for railways,” he said.
TMC’s Bapi Haldar demanded that ticket concessions to senior citizens, withdrawn during the Covid, be restored.
Pointing out that the government has worked towards the improvement of infrastructure and services in railways, BJP MP Dharambir Singh suggested that the rail ministry further the metro network to endow more accessible and cost-effective long-distance travel.
Aazad Samaj Party MP Chandrasekhar Azad said the Bill could potentially lead to basic powers of the Railways being weakened further. He said that Railways’ operational flexibility and decision-making must not be compromised.