Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled out privatising the Railways and asserted that his aim was to ensure growth and modernization of the state run transporter through private investment, and not public funds.
He said public funds, which are the property of the poor, should be used to fulfill their basic needs including health and education. Modi, who was in Varanasi to oversee the progress of several projects being undertaken in his constituency, linked the Railways to his ‘Make in India’ campaign.
He said the Railways would never be privatised and termed reports about it as complete rumour. The nod to FDI for segments in Railways had triggered apprehension that the government would privatise the state run transport giant. “Railway is my love and its employees are my family,” Modi said in Varanasi, where he arrived earlier in the day to observe ‘Good Governance Day’ to mark former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s birthday.
He said private investment would be used to modernise Railways and make it service-oriented, so that it could become an engine of growth for the nation. The PM also said the postal and railway networks could be leveraged to become drivers of rural development.
Modi said opening of four railways’ universities was part of his plans to modernise the sector with help of other countries. “Railways would emerge as a platform to generate employment for the country’s youth,’’ he said.
The Prime Minister added railways’ resources were going to be utilized for skill development programmes. “Skill development centers are being proposed at small railway stations that would to be connected with railway universities,’’ he said.
Modi was speaking at Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) after flagging off a high capacity locomotive. He later inaugurated a project for the expansion of DLW.
Earlier, the Prime Minister called for making India the largest producer of teachers to meet the world’s demand at a function to pay tributes to Banaras Hindu University (BHU) founder Madan Mohan Malaviya. The Centre named Malviya along with Atal Behari Vajpayee for the Bharat Ratna award. The Prime Minister said a new four or five-year course would be started that would merge undergraduate and BEd programmes to produce quality teacher.
