New Delhi: Days after allegedly being beaten, abused and harassed by labour union members, a 2012 batch officer of the Indian Railways Traffic Service (IRTS) was transferred out of his post, prompting senior officers to argue that the move would undermine the independent working of colleagues.
According to a complaint filed by Nishant Narayan, the IRTS officer, who was posted as Divisional Commissioner Manager (DCM) in the Northern Railway, the incident occurred 14 August, when he was scheduled to have a meeting with representatives of the Uttariya Railway Mazdoor Union (URMU).
Narayan lodged an FIR four days later, a copy of which is with ThePrint.
Instead of discussing the items mentioned in the agenda, the members of the labour union began to make “open, brazen and false allegations of connivance and favouritism on my part in respect of a staff member who is associated with another union,” Narayan has written in his complaint to the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of the Delhi division.
“They were not ready to accept my pleadings and got so aggressive that all seven of them (URMU members) stood up in unison, under a pre-meditated plan, and lunged at me, shouting in abusive and unparliamentary language,” Narayan has said in the letter dated 18 August. “As a result of this assault, I have sustained pain and injuries. More seriously, I was subjected to grave mental trauma, fear, and humiliation.”
He and his family are still concerned about a possible threat to life, the complaint adds.
“This incident has raised serious questions about my personal security as an officer of Indian Railways, and also about the security of other officers who may face similar intimidation and violence while performing their duties,” the complaint states. “It is unacceptable that union members can physically assault and terrorise officers inside an official chamber without fear of consequence.”
Making a larger point, Narayan has said that the Permanent Negotiating Machinery (PNM) meetings have become “a forum for bullying officers so as to get the inter-Union conflict agenda items carried further.”
“PNM has rightly become PTM (Permanent Terrorising Mechanism),” he said.
PNM meetings were institutionalised in 1952 in the face of demands from staff unions for an official and regular system of consultation with the Railway administration. While they were limited to the Railway Board for the first few years, they were extended to the zonal and divisional levels in 1956. The PNM system further got a fillip during the agitations in the 1970s.
In response to the complaint, the Northern Railway suspended two of the seven accused. However, it transferred Narayan from his position as DCM and posted him as General Secretary, Indian Railway Conference Association (IRCA) on 20 August.
The transfer prompted the Federation of Railway Officers’ Association of the Northern Railway to pass a resolution in Narayan’s support.
In the resolution passed 22 August, the federation said, “The timing of transfer has been very much unwarranted. This has given an impression that it has been done due to the pressure of URMU. This has discouraged the officers of Delhi division and is not good for the independent working of field officers. Hence the officers demand the administration to reinstate Nishant Narayan to his earlier post immediately.”
The federation has demanded that any transfer of officers “under the pressure of unions” be avoided in future. Moreover, it demanded that PNM meetings be done under camera from now on.
Responding to queries about the incident and Narayan’s transfer, Delhi Division DRM Pushpendra Tripathi said an inquiry is ongoing. While two people have been suspended, they are not agreeing that they harassed Narayan. As for the transfer, Tripathi said it was coincidental since it was already in the works.
“While unions indulge in some kind of bullying of officers routinely, and threaten chakka jam etc., cases of assault of senior officers are very rare, and have a chilling effect on the whole cadre,” a senior IRTS officer said. “In most such cases, the administration suspends the people responsible for assault. In this case, that has happened only with two people, and the victim officer has been transferred out, so the whole cadre is demoralised.”
ThePrint contacted Narayan for a comment, but he declined to speak on the issue.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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