Congress alleges PPP model in Railways is " jugglery of words"

Congress has said that the government is pushing railways into private hands and the Public-Private Partnership is just "jugglery of words" after the government invited private participation in passenger train operations on 109 pairs of routes. The Congress apprehended that the government is moving towards retrenchment of employees. The Indian Railways employs up to 1.5 crore people.

New Delhi: A day after Indian Railways kicked up its plans to allow private entities to operate passenger trains on its network, Congress on Thursday alleged that the government is pushing railways into private hands and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a "jugglery of words".

While addressing a virtual press conference, Congress MP, Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged, "Why the Government of India has decided to do this line privatization for Indian Railways, bang in the middle of Corona? Are you decimating and destroying the value of India?"

The Congress leader stated that Indian Railways is the largest network of single management in the world and Asia's second-largest providing employment. It provides traffic to about 25 million people daily.

"This is its courtesy, beauty, and comprehensiveness. Now in this context, we don't understand what kind of political stubbornness is going on," he added.

Lashing out at the central government, he said, "Are you squandering state largesse and throwing away valuable Indian resources by picking a time of this kind, it is absolutely mind-boggling why this time has been chosen?"

Singhvi also cited the government's response in Parliament over the matter saying that "it is not going to privatize Railways".

"Now we know this word jugglery. You may not call it privatization but on the same line where your freight time has fallen like 4 to 1 per cent where you have a current account revenue deficit of Rs 25000 crore till 17th March, it was on the floor of Parliament noted where you have falling revenues and passengers and cargo fare, then how do you expect one man to run profitably on private line and your own Railways will keep losing money," asked Singhvi.

He also questioned the government for not discussing the matter in Parliament session or in a virtual Parliamentary Committee meeting.

"If you cannot pass a law, at least you can pass a resolution of Parliament. If you don't want to call it a resolution, at least you could have had a discussion in Parliament. What is this mysterious mad hurry?" he added.

Singhvi alleged if retrenchment in Railways is also on the cards of the Government of India.

On Wednesday, Railways formally kick-started its plans to allow private entities to operate passenger trains on its network by inviting requests for qualifications (RFQ) for participation on 109 pairs of routes through 151 modern trains. The project would entail a private investment of about Rs 30,000 crores in the Railway sector.