It is reported that Railways is in acute shortage of wagons to carry goods, especially coal. As per the Railways Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu, more than 2,000 additional wagons are required. The tenders are yet to be finalised.

It seems that the BSNL example is being repeated here. Making shortage of required wagons, the railways will be in difficulty. And then running of goods trains can be taken over by the private corporates. There is every chance that the shortage is planned to weaken Railways, as it was done to BSNL by cancelling the tender for required mobile connections, which was the main reason for starting of its down fall.

In a meeting at Varanasi, yesterday, 25th December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the railway workers that there will be no privatisation of Railways, but private investment will brought for improving and expanding the same.

No Privatisation is OK. It is the demand of the 13 lakhs of railway employees, who have strongly opposed the move and are preparing for a serious struggle against the same.

But the private investment in the railways and PPP is part of the game of the government to gradually hand over this important sector to the private companies. The workers have to be warned about the same.