A new committee to “restructure” railways under the chairmanship of Bibek Debroy, an economist helped by six former bureaucrats and business executives is to find the magic pill for all of Indian Railways’ real and imaginary ills.
The last such exercise done by Rakesh Mohan in 2001 recommended “corporatisation” as the cure-all solution, though the vital issue of whether railways should become a commercial entity required to generate profits, or continue to be a vehicle for economic and social growth was never fully answered.
The problem is not about who is the owner, but whether the owner is willing to take responsibility. Creating an arm’s length relationship between the railways and the government would be ideal, but the netas and babus of the ministry of transport, under which the proposed Railway Corporation would function, could hardly be expected to accept it.
The CEO (chief executive officer) of any organisation is the one who calls the shots and also takes the rap if things go wrong, for accountability must be a go-along with authority.
This crucial role has all along been assumed by the Chairman, Railway Board (CRB), who though first among equals of seven board members, is ultimately responsible for the smooth functioning of the 1.4 million staff-strong behemoth that is Indian Railways.
The vital task of selecting candidates to man the crucial posts of managers for 67 divisions, general managers for 16 zonal railways, five for the Production Units and seven other posts of equivalent rank is the CRB’s prerogative, though he may consult other members.
Perhaps, Madhav Rao Scindia was the last rail minister who understood and made full use of the unique strengths of this vast organisation, seldom interfering with railway’s day to day working unless he had a strong enough reason to do so.
Jaffer Sharief, who followed Scindia a few years later, came armed with prior experience of having worked as minister of state for railways, and inducting a railway officer as his PS (private secretary) who knew the ropes, Mr Sharief soon set about milking the organisation as its de facto CEO.
Over the last two decades successive rail ministers continued to usurp the vital role of CEO, with their respective PS’ often issuing orders on behalf of the minister, riding roughshod over not only the board but the entire organisation. Unfortu-nately, their populist agenda got a free run with hundreds of financially unviable projects and a decade-long embargo on passenger fare hike dragging railway’s operating ratio to an all time high of 92 per cent.
“Divide and rule” became the mantra, and with the chairman being made ineffective, even some board members began to lobby actively for projects and other inputs for their respective departments in order to grab the biggest share of the “budget” pie.
The latest fiasco of “cash for post” during Pawan Kumar Bansal’s tenure was the classic example of a vendor trying to influence not just the outcome of a tender, but slotting a key player in decision-making who would be favourable to them.
Hopefully, Mr Debroy’s committee will squarely address three key issues — whether railways should become a commercial undertaking or remain a vehicle for economic growth with major investments being funded by the Central exchequer; insisting on clubbing accountability with authority; and last but not the least, restoring primacy of CRB as the Indian Railways’ CEO.
The writer is
former member
of the Railway Board
