gg` STANDING COMMITTEE ON RAILWAYS 15 (2016-17) SIXTEENTH LOK SABHA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (RAILWAY BOARD) [Action taken by Government on the recommendations/ observations contained in the 12th Report of the Standing Committee on Railways (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) on ‘Safety and Security in Railways’] FIFTEENTH REPORT LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI AUGUST, 2017/ SHRAVANA, 1939 (SAKA) SCR NO. 209 FIFTEENTH REPORT STANDING COMMITTEE ON RAILWAYS (2016-17) SIXTEENTH LOK SABHA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (RAILWAY BOARD) [Action taken by Government on the recommendations/ observations contained in the 12th Report of the Standing Committee on Railways (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) on ‘Safety and Security in Railways’] Presented to Lok Sabha on 03.08.2017 Laid in Rajya Sabha on 03.08.2017 LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI AUGUST, 2017/ SHRAVANA, 1939 (SAKA) CONTENTS COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEE................................................................ (iii) INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. (v) PART-I CHAPTER I REPORT…………………………………………………………………………. 1 CHAPTER II Recommendations/Observations which have been accepted by the Government………………………………………… 12 CHAPTER III Recommendations/Observations which the Committee do not desire to pursue in view of the Government’s 44 reply…………………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER IV Recommendations/Observations in respect of which replies of the Government have not been accepted by the Committee and which require reiteration…………………………………………………………………… 55 CHAPTER V Recommendations/Observations in respect of which final replies of the Government are still 62 awaited………………………………………………………………………. ANNEXURE I. & II Instructions on duty hours of Safety Staff issued as per the 54 recommendations of the High Power Committee III. Medical Facilities for Loco Pilots and other running staff 58 APPENDIX I. Minutes of the sitting of the Standing Committee on Railways held on 60 31.05.2017 II. Analysis of Action Taken by Government on the Recommendations/Observations contained in the 12th Report (16th Lok 61 Sabha) on ‘Safety and Secuirty in Railways’ COMPOSITION OF STANDING COMMITTEE ON RAILWAYS (2015-16)@ Shri Sudip Bandyopadhyay - Chairperson MEMBERS LOK SABHA 2. Shri P.K. Kunhalikutty* 3. Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel 4. Shri Ram Tahal Choudhary 5. Shri Rajeev Shankarrao Satav# 6. Shri Sudheer Gupta 7. Shri Chandra Prakash Joshi 8. Shri Ramesh Kaushik 9. Shri Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar 10. Shri Balabhadra Majhi 11. Shri K.H. Muniyappa 12. Shri A.T. Nana Patil 13. Shri R. Radhakrishnan 14. Shri M. Raja Mohan Reddy 15. Shri Lakhanlal Sahu 16. Prof. (Dr.) Ram Shanker 17. Shri G.M. Siddeshwara 18. Shri Ganesh Singh 19. Shri Uday Pratap Singh 20. Shri Narasimham Thota 21. Shri S.R. Vijayakumar RAJYA SABHA 22. Shri A.K. Antony 23. Shri Ranvijay Singh Judev 24. Shri Shwait Malik 25. Shri Satish Chandra Misra 26. Shri Mukut Mithi 27. Shri Garikapati Mohan Rao 28. Shri T. Rathinavel 29. Shri Bashistha Narain Singh 30. Shri Alok Tiwari 31. Shri Motilal Vora @ Constituted w.e.f. 01.09.2016 vide Lok Sapbha Bulletin Part II No.4105 dated 15.09.2016 * Shri E. Ahmed passed away on 01.02.2017 (Ref.: Lok Sabha Sectt. Notification No.24/4(1)/2017/T(B) dated 01.02.2017). Shri P.K. Kunhalikutty was nominated w.e.f. 19.07.2017 (Ref.:LS Bulletin Part II No.5526 dated 19.07.2017) # Shri Rajeev Shankarrao Satav was nominated in place of Shri Gaurav Gogoi vide LS Bulletin Part II No.5163 dated 28.03.2017 LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT 1. Smt. Abha Singh Yaduvanshi - Joint Secretary 2. Shri Arun K. Kaushik - Director 3. Smt. Banani Sarker Joshi - Sr. Cte. Assistant INTRODUCTION I, the Chairperson, Standing Committee on Railways (2016-17), having been authorised by the Committee to submit the Report on their behalf, present this Fifteenth Report on Action Taken by Government on the Recommendations/Observations of the Committee contained in their Twelfth Report (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) on ‘Safety and Security in Railways’. 2. The Twelfth Report was presented to the Lok Sabha and laid in the Rajya Sabha on 14.12.2016. The Report contained 34 recommendations/observations. The Ministry of Railways furnished their Action Taken Notes on all the recommendations/observations contained in the Report on 01.02.2017. 3. The Committee considered and adopted the Draft Action Taken Report at their sitting held on 31.05.2017. The minutes of the sitting is given in Appendix-I. 4. For facility of reference and convenience, the observation and recommendations of the Committee have been printed in bold letters in the body of the Report. 5. An analysis of the Action Taken by Government on the recommendations/observations contained in the Twelfth Report of the Standing Committee on Railways (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) is given in Appendix-II. NEW DELHI; SUDIP BANDHYOPADHYAY 26 July, 2017 Chairperson, 4 Ashadha, 1938 (Saka) Standing Committee on Railways CHAPTER I REPORT This Report of the Standing Committee on Railways deals with the action taken by the Government on the Recommendations/Observations contained in their Twelfth Report (16th Lok Sabha) on "Safety and Security in Railways". 2. The Twelfth Report was presented to the Lok Sabha and laid in Rajya Sabha on 14 December, 2016. It contained 34 Recommendations/Observations. 3. Action Taken Notes in respect of all the Recommendations/Observations have been received and categorised as follows: (i) Recommendations/observations which have been accepted by the Government:- Para Nos. 2,4,5,8,9,12,13,14,16,20,22,25,27,28,29,30,31,33 and 34 Total : 19 Chapter II (ii) Recommendations/observations which the Committee do not desire to pursue in view of the Government’s replies:- Para No. 10, 17 and 18 Total :03 Chapter III (iii) Recommendations/observations in respect of which replies of the Government have not been accepted by the Committee and which require reiteration:- Para Nos. 1,6,7,11,15 and 32 Total : 06 Chapter IV (iv) Recommendations/observations in respect of which final replies are still awaited:- Para No. 3,19,21,23,24 and 26 Total : 06 Chapter V 1 4. The Committee trust that utmost importance will be given to the implementation of the Recommendations accepted by the Government. The Committee desire that action taken replies to the Recommendations/Observations contained in Chapter-I of this Report and final replies to the recommendations included in Chapter V of the Report should be furnished to them not later than three months of the presentation of this report. 5. The Committee will now deal with the action taken by the Government on some of their recommendations/observations. A. Overview of Safety in Indian Railways Recommendation (Para No.1) 6. The Committee had noted that the Indian Railways is entrusted with the immense task of providing transportation facilities to the passengers and the freight alike while undertaking utmost care to ensure that the operations are safe and secure. They had further observed that adherence to safety, an ongoing and a continuous process, is a multi-disciplinary effort in the Indian Railways. Each department defines its own safety parameters for assets installed/used and monitors/maintains the parameters in the safety limits which are codified manuals i.e. General and Subsidiary Rules and are maintained as per laid down protocol. Each department lays emphasis and keeps the concern of their own department a priority without realizing that the needs could be more significant on other sides. The Committee, however, had their reservations on the existing system in IR of providing safety in the backdrop of inter department differences or even intra– department prioritization on safety issues. They were of the view that safety being a non negotiable subject should be dealt with in a prompt, precise and diligent manner and preferably by a separate department as inter disciplinary methods of dealing with this aspect at micro level only serves to reduce its efficiency, resulting in delayed response and compromises on safety. The Committee, therefore, recommended that the current structure of Railway Board as well at the Zonal and Divisional levels should be reviewed and the safety infrastructure of the Indian Railways should be recast to the extent that it 63 includes at least a separate or a 2 full-fledged Department solely entrusted with providing safety and security across its area of jurisdiction. The Ministry with their presently ongoing organisational restructuring, should seriously consider appointment of a full-fledged Member (Safety) within the Railway Board in order to provide dedicated focus to the railway safety operations. This will help and ensure synchronise micro level safety measures into a holistic and macro level safe Railway operations. They agreed with the proposal of the Ministry that there will be in-house operational changes such as the Safety Directorate will now be involved in proactive auditing operations, instead of being the passive data analyst as of now. They, however, desired that this proposal should be finalised at the earliest so that necessary correctives can be taken up immediately. 7. In their Action Taken Reply, the Ministry of Railways have stated as under: “Safety is integral to the construction, certification, operation and maintenance of Railway System. Each Member is responsible for the respective part pertaining to the department viz.: infrastructure, rolling stock, signaling and operations. Overall co-ordination is done by Member (Traffic), Railway Board. Hence, the question of a separate Member for Safety is not pertinent.” 8. The Committee had expressed their reservations on the existing system in Indian Railways for providing safety in the backdrop of inter department difficulties and had urged for the integration of all aspects of rail safety under a single nodal department for quicker response time as well as avoiding bureaucratic friction. The reply of the Ministry on this suggestion has been very dismissive. The Committee feel that such an attitude reflects the Ministry's unwillingness to relinquish age old practices and procedures.