Title - Railway Board fails to set up consultative panel

NAGPUR: The Railway Board claims to accord top priority to passenger services but it has failed to constitute the National Railway Users Consultative Committee (NRUCC) for the past one year.

According to railway sources, the South East Central Railway's (SECR) Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) held elections on June 20, 2012 at Bilaspur headquarters, to appoint one member to the NRUCC.

There were two ZRUCC members namely Pravin Dabli from Nagpur and Raman Methi from Gondia in the race. However, as Dabli withdrew his name at the last minute, Methi was elected unopposed to the NRUCC.

SECR general manager Arunendra Kumar, who conducted the election process, had sent a report to the Railway Board intimating that Methi has been nominated as NRUCC member. However, the board rejected Kumar's report saying that it is yet to constitute NRUCC and hence Methi's name stands rejected.

The Railway Board has asked Kumar that such a member should be elected only after the formation of NRUCC. Methi is close to Gondia-Bhandara MP and union heavy industries minister Praful Patel.

Now a questionmark has been raised on the ZRUCC functioning. ""When the NRUCC has not been formed, why were the elections conducted?"" ask a section of members.

As the NRUCC has not been constituted, members from the respective zones are unable to put forth their problems pertaining to their regions. When contacted, Dabli refused to go into the details of the issue but said that NRUCC should be constituted soon.