National Coordination Committee of Railwaymen’s Struggle reconstituted

Rail workers unions have reconstituted the National Coordination Committee of Railwaymen’s Struggle (NCCRS), which led the historic railway strike in 1974, to lead protests against the handing over of key routes to private players, a statement from the All India Railwaymen’s Federation has said.

With a private sector investment of Rs 30,000 crore, the Railway Ministry earlier this year announced that it would hand over the operations of 150 trains to private players in 109 routes. It has already invited bids for the same.

Railway unions have been opposed to the move since the beginning and despite several discussions with top officials, they have been relentlessly opposing what they allege was “privatisation and corporatisation” of railways.

“The Railway Ministry has announced its intent and plans to introduce 150 private trains on select and profitable 109 routes. It also wants to corporatise the railway production units as a prelude to handing it over to private corporates.

“On October 29, a meeting/webinar was held in which national leaders of 17 major unions and category-wise associations of the Indian Railways came together from all over the country and decided to reconstitute the National Coordination Committee of Railwaymen’s Struggle (NCCRS) to Save the Railways and Save the Nation. It may be remembered that, it was the NCCRS which led the historic railway strike in 1974, a statement from AIRF said.

It was decided that the Convenor of NCCRS would be Shiva Gopal Mishra, General Secretary of AIRF and Co-Convenor would be M Raghavaiah, General Secretary of NFIR (National Federation of Indian Railwaymen).