Hundreds of railwaymen under the aegis of Southern Railway Mazdoor Union staged a demonstration here protesting against the Union government’s proposal to allow foreign direct investment in the railways.
Railwaymen from across the division gathered at the western entry and raised slogans against the anti-railway and anti-national move by the Bharatiya Janata Party by way of allowing FDI in railway projects.
The union divisional secretary, J.M. Rafi, led the protest. “Railwaymen have not realised the danger of allowing FDI in setting up of freight corridors.
Seventy per cent of railway’s revenue comes from freight movement. With this, the fare for the biggest network of passenger trains was being highly subsidised. If the revenue from freight goes to the hands of private players, then railways will be forced to increase passenger rail fare,” he said.
He pointed out that the State-owned telecom operator, BSNL, was in the verge of collapse after the Centre opened up the telecom sector to private players.
Mr. Rafi also said that passengers travelling by Mumbai Metro had to cough up a minimum of Rs. 10 and a maximum of Rs. 40 for the travel since the Reliance company which had invested in the project wanted to fix a higher fare. The same travel could have cost Rs. 5 to Rs. 10 had the project been implemented by the Indian Railway, he said.
Among those who addressed the protest was Assistant general secretary P. Ganesan and assistant divisional secretary V. Ramkumar.
