The recent merger of various Indian Railways services
seems to have ruffled many feathers. In the corridors
of the Rail Bhawan, it’s being interpreted as a ham
handed
approach to address the various problems
that plague the world’s biggest railway network.
Experts view the latest move by the Railways Ministry
as the cynical first step towards privatisation of the
Indian Railways, instead of trying to address the
systemic issues that have adversely impacted its
Operating Ratio, affecting its modernisation plan,
expansion and efficiency. The sweeping changes that
the ministry is trying to ram through also mark the
beginning of the end of a welfare enterprise that
provides a cheap means of transport to the country’s
poorest of the poor. In a bigger context, this is,
perhaps, the first clear signs of the end of a welfare
state. Srinand Jha reports
