Centre bent upon privatising Indian Railways, says Com. Shiva Gopal Mishra

 All India Railwaymens’ Federation (AIRF) General Secretary Com.  Shiva Gopal Mishra has called the Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC) claim of Rs 70 lakh profit for India’s first ‘privately run’ train as a gimmick.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, he said, except during the Deepavali festival, the Tejas Express has been running 40%-60% vacant. Then how can IRCTC claim profit? The federation is conducting an internal ‘investigation’ into the claims, and
will soon come out with the truth about the ‘profit’, he noted.

He said, the IRCTC is making such claims to encourage privatisation of the India Railways.

“We have seen the fate of Air India and BSNL, which the government wanted to disinvest, and their wrong policies has pushed both these entities into loss making, and the Federation would never allow such a thing to happen to the Indian Railways,” he said.

He charged that the Railway Minister is misleading the people on privatisation of Indian Railways. “Even in Parliament, the Railway Minister has stated that the Union government is not planning to privatise the Railways, but stealthily they are preparing grounds to bring in private players in vital operations,” he said.

‘Helping pvt players’

Com. Mishra said, the government is ‘helping’ private players make profit by providing them the Indian Railways infrastructure.