Railways is necessary for social and economic development in India. Discuss how Privatisation of Indian railways will affect this.
Refer - The Hindu
IAS Parliament 8 years
KEY POINTS
Importance of Railways
· Links places, enabling large-scale, rapid and low-cost movement of people across the length and breadth of the country.
· Links agricultural production centres with distant markets.
· Connects industrial production centres with markets and with sources of raw materials and facilitates industrial development.
· Provides rapid, reliable and cost-effective bulk transportation to the energy sector.
· Indian Railways has become a symbol of national integration and a strategic instrument for enhancing our defence preparedness.
Disadvantages of Privatisation
· Race to profit degrades public interest.
· Steep increase in pricing affects the poor & marginalised.
· Increase in the cost of goods, affects the economy.
· Become a symbol of upper class.
· Less profitable routes will be neglected.
· Freight trains will be preferred because of its high profit instead of passenger trains.
· Enhance unhealthy competition, as the ultimate objective is to earn.
· Affects national security during war, as most of the defence shifting of manpower as well as equipments is through railways.
Solutions
· Bringing in Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
· Confine private activities only to sanitation and catering, while retaining the operation of trains with the Public sector.
· Privatize the peripheral activities of Indian railways such as running schools, hospitals and police forces.
· This helps in greater resource allocation to its core function of running trains.