A Rs25 billion subsidy and still Railways’ annual loss adds up to Rs45 billion. Everything about the current state of the enterprise – wrecked locomotives, appalling monitoring and oversight, unacceptable safety conditions, non-existent checks and balances, inexcusable handling of engines – reeks of corruption and mismanagement of the highest order. Regrettably, recommendations of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways, largely citing fire-fighting measures to forestall immediate collapse, will only amount to the proverbial band-aiding bullet wounds.
Railways, like most public sector enterprises, is in a state of utter collapse because it has been allowed to decay. And while we have endlessly explained numerous reasons for its fall, its best to concentrate time and energy into identifying avenues for improvement. A homogeneous system is needed that covers all such organisations. One, they can no longer be used to dump political appointees. This practice has led to collapse of practically all government institutions. Two, it cannot have a management not answerable to market forces. Three, employees cannot be compensated according to an arrangement from a bygone era. Four, they cannot sit on extremely large tracts of prized real estate used for non-productive enterprises.
At the risk of repetition, till the holding company argument, proposed on numerous occasions by our panel of experts, is implemented, there can be no avoiding total collapse of all sick PSEs, railways perhaps the first to fall on its own weight. There must be immediate and credible steps towards strategic privatisation, which cannot materialise till a management turnaround is engineered. We must have infusion of private sector dynamics, aimed chiefly at stitching together a suitable product for sale – checking leakages, addressing over-staffing, minimising losses, etc.
One an even more important note, Railways in such disarray is not just an embarrassment for the government, it has the makings of a colossal calamity. The people’s suffering being one thing, it can seriously compromise the army’s tactical deployment should push come to shove, and we are already in a very strained security situation.
