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• Thousands of railway employees on Wednesday marched to Parliament, demanding adequate budgetary support from the government to save the fund-starved national transporter. The employees raised slogans - "save railways, save country" - and sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to help railways tide over financial crisis. "We have sought time from PM to push our demand," said Shiva Gopal Mishra, general secretary of all-India Railway Federation, adding that a memorandum has been submitted to the PM.

• The employees, concerned with financial health of transporter, were forced to hit the road after new railway minister Mukul Roy roll backed the hike in passenger fares that was announced in the rail budget. The protesters demanded immediate steps to fill 2.5 lakh vacancies in railways of which 1.5 lakh only belong to the safety category. The rollback in general, sleeper and Third AC fares is expected to deprive railways of about Rs 6,900 crore revenue. The unions are insisting that the shortfall should be compensated by a matching grant by the government.

• The federation also demanded removal of anomalies in the Sixth Central Pay Commission, relaxation in duty hours, scrapping of New Pension Scheme and implementation of various welfare schemes announced earlier by Railway Minister. "The minister assured that railways related issues raised by us will be resolved within 15 days," Mishra said. Addressing the rally, Mishra criticized the government for giving only Rs 24,000 crore budgetary support to the railways, despite its 64,000 km network, 6,000 stations, over 19,000 trains and service to two crore people every day. "There is every possibility that our freight earnings may be hit by competition from the road (transport). It has become essential to save the Railways. The government should come forward to financially support it," he added.

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