)
Aggrieved with the government’s decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in railway projects, a million rail employees on Wednesday decided to go on strike.
They are yet to decide when the strike will begin. A strike lasting a single day will cost the railways Rs 2,400 crore.
Indian Railways has 1.31 million employees. Of them, a million are affiliated to the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR). On Wednesday, a meeting of the working committee of the union was held here and the decision was taken to mobilise the entire workforce.
“We have decided to go on strike against the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi)’s decision to sell the railways to foreigners,” said M Raghavaiah, general secretary of the federation.
He added no date has been decided upon but the workers would stage a protest in front of Parliament in April next year. “Successive past governments are responsible for the financial malaise of Indian Railways, not the workers. The past governments have announced new lines that are nor remunerative. Concessions have been provided, even though the fares have remained stagnant for 10 years. Despite that, workers have managed to make Indian Railways the fourth largest freight carrier in the world, with a load of 1,100 million tonnes every year,” he said.
He also said the workers were willing to provide their provident fund as loan for the railway works. “But the PM thinks beating drums in Japan will bring money.”
