Mamata asked to reconsider phasing out of Railway printing presses

They may be at loggerheads in West Bengal, but a senior CPI(M) MP has asked Trinamool Congress chief and railway minister Mamata Banerjee to reconsider the decision to phase out Railway Printing Presses to protect the interests of 5,000 employees. "If Government of India Presses, which are not contributing to revenue earnings, can be modernised through huge investments, why cannot Railway Printing Presses despite (them) being instrumental for railway earnings be modernised
for both men and machines," CPI(M) Lok Sabha leader Basudeb Acharia said.
 
In a letter to Banerjee, he sought the revival and strengthening of the railway presses and said if a decision towards their continuation was not taken and outsourcing resorted to, it would be an unviable proposal price-wise. Acharia said the Standing Committee on Railways, of which he was the chairman, had "come out with strong recommendations for the strengthening of the railway printing presses." These in-house presses have been printing railway utility forms and books besides catering to the ticket requirements and money value needs of all rail workshops.