THE Union Cabinet decision to restructure the Railways Board including trimming of numbers and merger of different cadres into one central service is a good first step in fulfilling the ambitious modernisation plan for the national transporter. By cutting down on the vertical officialdom in vast number of departments the Government will form the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) to integrate all services. A unified command comprising a handful of decision-makers was the need of the hour to put Indian Railways on a higher growth trajectory. Railways’ plans to provide higher safety standards, speed and quality services needed an agile organisation to single-mindedly focus on the immediate priorities. The IRMS will act as a nodal body to all the reforms suggested by various committees set up over the years. The process will take a while to get into motion but it has to be welcomed from the future point of view. By granting autonomy to the 17 Railway zones the IRMS will be able to maintain the speed and scale required to tackle future challenges.

THERE is no denying the fact that distress migration to urban centres from villages is the direct fall-out of loss of work in rural parts and concentration of development in urban growth centres. Vice President Mr. Venkaiah Naidu has, therefore, very rightly stressed the need for decentralised development. According to him already 600 million people are living in urban areas and urban population is likely to go up to 700 million in next three decades putting a huge stress on urban resources, including land and water. In modern era urbanisation is an inevitability. But this needs to be controlled if the situation like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata is to be avoided. For this decentralisation of development possibly holds the key to address the problem of distress migration from villages. Villages have to become self-reliant in all respects, including employment generation for rural youth, quality healthcare, high standards of education, reliable transportation which will then obviate the need for them to migrate to cities and towns.