Changing track: For railways, it's easier said than done

Railways could be aiming for a complete functional overhaul! At least that's what the mandate for the recently-appointed Bibek Debroy Committee shows.

However, going by ground reality, it's easier said than done!

One can see how tough it would be to change the ways of the ailing transport giant if one were to look at the way the Mumbai division of Western Railway functions. Employees as well as unions here have decided to vigorously oppose a recent diktat by the railway board to give extra duties to those out-stations train reservation clerks, who don't have much work these days as a rising number of ticket are now being bought through the IRCTC website. These clerks man the passenger reservation system (PRS) centres from where tickets for long-distance trains are booked.

The railway board circular states that these enquiry-cum-reservation clerks (ECRC) be employed in making announcements on coach positions as well as answer public inquiries. This is because, statistics show that about 53% of all long-distance tickets are now booked online. Railways believe that with the launch of Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendras—private sector-run passenger reservation centres—the workload on PRS will go down further.

"It's natural for railways to be making changes to the work profile of employees as per workload," said a top WR official.

However, unions will have non of it! Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh has already got into the act, even submitting a memorandum to the railway administration with the signatures of all ECRCs in Mumbai, opposing the change.

WRMS divisional secretary Ajay Singh told dna that apart from wearing black arm-bands against the order, employees would also scale up other forms of protest. "We will not accept this under any circumstances. We will hold sit-down protests. It's just a means to bring in large-scale privatisation of PRCs at the cost of employees," said Singh.

Railways' dilemma
With a vast, well-entrenched bureaucracy, railways has been plagued by indecisiveness and infighting for years now. "Railways might be the largest organisation under one management in terms of employees, but the ground reality is different. The five most important streams of the railways—traffic, civil, mechanical, electrical, finance—behave almost independently. These departments, all under respective members (rank equivalent to secretary to government of India) generally work at cross-purposes, slowing down railways' progress," said a retired railway official.

Bibek Debroy panel, its mandate
The 7-member committee, with a one-year term, will be chaired by renowned economist Dr Bibek Debroy and will have among its members former cabinet secretary KM Chandrashekar. Other members are: Gurcharan Das (former chairman and MD, Procter and Gamble), professor Partha Mukhopadhyay (senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research), Ravi Narain (former MD, National Stock Exchange), Rajendra Kashyap (former financial commissioner of railways), and one yet-to-be named nominee of the department of economic affairs. Sanjay Chadha, currently serving as executive director, mechanical engineering division, railway board, will be the secretary to the committee.

It's the onus of the committee to "reorganise and restructure the railway board and subsequently the department, so that policy making and operations are separated. Policy making now focuses on long-term and medium-term planning and operations focus on day-to-day functioning of the organisation.

No. of booking staff on Mumbai WR
Post Sanctioned strength Current working
Chief Reservation Supervisor 57 51.
Reservation Supervisor 253 240.
Clerks 162 149.