Railway union announces indefinite strike on 23 November

Workers to protest govt's plan to bring in private participation in railway projects and its FDI policy

National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), a trade union body representing 77 per cent of Indian railways’ 1.31-million workers, has called a nationwide strike from November 23 against the government’s plan to bring in private participation in railway projects and the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy.

“The strike will bring to halt 19,000 trains across the nation beginning 6:00 am on November 23 impacting 20 million passengers. The call for the strike was announced at a massive protest today (Tuesday) outside Sansad Bhawan by NFIR,” said the federation’s press secretary S N Malik.

NFIR general secretary M Raghavaiah said around 100,000 central government employees - largely belonging to Railways apart from other sectors including defence – participated in the protest. “About 3.4 million central employees representing these sectors are part of this protest against FDI and public private partnership policy,” he said.

NFIR has also demanded immediate withdrawal of a recent report by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy on resource mobilisation for Indian Railways, which has recommended roping in private sector participation.