National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) would be organising a rally in Delhi on September 8 to press various demands, said its general secretary, M Raghavaih, in Vijayawada on Monday.

Talking to reporters, he said that railways was in a crisis because of "political agenda and wrong policies of the UPA government", especially its refusal to hike fares and freight rates.

The main demand of the Union was that government should immediately fill up some two lakh vacancies, and remove the deficiencies in the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission, he said.

Fares and freight rates were needed to be hiked to save the railways from a financial crisis, he said.

He was here to attend a workshop on 'Safety and Prevention of Accidents in Railways', as the chief guest.

Fares and freight charges had not been hiked for the last six years because of the "political agenda of the government" he said.

Railways was losing over Rs 14,000 crores a year because of stagnant rates, he added.

Also, the railways were not getting any reimbursement from the government for carrying essential commodities at subsidised rates, he alleged.

To achieve GDP growth rate of nine per cent, the rail infrastructure needed improvement, he said. To match up to China, the country needed to expand the rail network, he added.

Due to shortage of manpower, existing railways staff was facing a lot of stress, Raghavaih stated, adding that this also created safety concerns.