Punjab to get fifty percent of railway land auctions

LAHORE – Punjab will get a fifty percent share from the amount earned by Pakistan Railways property sale in the province. This was decided in the meeting of a special committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Pakistan railways (PR) held on Saturday at PR headquarters.
The committee directed all the provinces to clear off railways outstanding payments within 30 days. Railway authorities were directed to get the railway land vacated from illegal possession. The committee was informed that out of the total railway land, 4,949 acre land was possessed by illegal occupants, while katchi abadies have been set up on 403 acre railway land.
The meeting decided to collect outstanding payments from the allottees of 41,906 acre railway land on lease. The committee upheld that PR had no authority to increase railway fares itself and close trains. The committee unanimously agreed that no illegal action will be allowed and anyone who tended to initiate such an action then a privilege motion in the National Assembly will be tabled.
Convener of the committee Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that downsizing in the railways will not be allowed, however in dire circumstances a list of officers will first be prepared in which low-scale employees will be given a cushion. He said the PAC will not allow anyone to shut down the department at any cost.
Talking to the media, he said railways was the most economical and affordable means of transport and a national asset, adding that he will call a meeting of the finance secretary, the chairman planning division and the chairman PR on the issue.
He said the department had not yet been granted final approval of increasing fares by the government and it was allowed to increase fares by its own but it will have to justify the increase. To a question, he said the committee had warned and directed the PR administration not to close any train without the consultation of elected members concerned such as the MNA of the areas/sections.
He remarked that trains’ closure case was in the Supreme Court so the PR administration was not able to close any train before a decision by the court. Ayaz said the committee had recommended repairing 145 locomotives instead of purchasing new ones which could be repaired at a cost of Rs 6 billion. He said no government had tried to rectify the situation of railways in the last 10 years.
He said the committee advised the PR administration to control fraud, expenditure and embezzlement in the department instead of sacking employees and added it was made clear to the administration that downsizing will start from the top. He said that embezzlement of 11 radiators in Rawalpindi division was discussed in the meeting and the committee had given 15 days to the PR and police to take action against people involved in the embezzlement.
Regarding embezzlement in selling scrap, he said that Federal Investigation Agency informed the committee that it had recovered Rs 50 million and other amounts will also be recovered soon. He said the government had approved Rs 13 billion as PSDP but just Rs 1.2 billion was released in the last six months and requested the government to release the rest of the amount to the PR if it wanted to save it.