The Railway Ministry has appointed a committee to suggest the restructuring of the Railway Board which has, hitherto, been looking after the entire railway administration single-handedly.
The committee, headed by economist Bibek Debroy, has persons like Gurucharan Das, author and former CEO of Procter and Gamble, and Partha Mukhopadhyay of the Centre for Policy Research as members, who are known for their advocacy of privatisation and lessening government control.
Other members of the committee are former Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, MD of National Stock Exchange Ravi Narain and Rajendra Kashyap, former finance commissioner of the Railway Board. Chairman of the Railway Board Arunendra Kumar will be ex-officio member of the committee.
This was part of the budget announcement made by Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda. The idea was initially mooted by former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi, who was trying to implement economic reforms in the railways.
The restructuring is aimed at divesting the responsibilities of the board to different agencies and limiting the role of the Railway Board to policy making. Defending the move, a senior official claimed that this has been done to free the railways from scandals and bring about transparency.
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