New Delhi, Oct 6 (PTI) The Congress on Sunday slammed the Centre after it reportedly rolled back the merger of eight railway services to create one, and said the “First Announce, Second Think” mentality of Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to spell danger to the country’s institutions.
There was no official word from the government on the reported move.
Congress general secretary (In-charge, Communications) Jairam Ramesh cited a media report which claimed that almost five years after merging the eight services into a single civil service, the Ministry of Railways has now decided that recruitment will be made through two different examinations — the Civil Services Examination (CSE) for non-technical posts and Engineering Services Examination (ESE) for technical.
In a post on X, Ramesh said, “This was not a case of Railway Reforms but actually a case of Railway Deforms.” “Five years ago, the non-biological PM’s Government merged eight railway services into the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) and discontinued recruitment through the Engineering Services Examination,” he said.
On October 5 2024, the government rolled back its decision and will now continue to recruit through two separate examinations, one for Civil Services and one for Engineering Services, he claimed.
“The rollback was motivated by concern that too many officers coming in were generalists and lacked the technical and engineering skills required,” Ramesh said.
“This FAST mentality of the non-biological PM – First Announce, Second Think – continues to spell danger to our institutions especially,” the Congress leader said.
The railways are fundamentally an engineering system, and the deliberate attempt to forget this fact in the rush to standardise all recruitment was foolhardy, Ramesh said. PTI ASK TIR TIR
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A short story on Indian Railway work culture:
Every day, a small ant (Artisans) arrived at work early and starting work immediately, she produced a lot and she was happy. The boss (Top management), a lion (Railway Board), was surprised to see that the ant was working without supervision. He thought if the ant can produce so much without supervision, wouldn’t she produce more if she had a supervisor!. So the lion recruited a cockroach (Middle management -SAG/Selection grade officers) who had extensive experience as a supervisor and who was famous for writing excellent reports. The cockroach’s first decision was to set up a clocking in attendance system. He also needed a secretary to help him write and type his reports. He recruited a spider (Ministerial staff) who managed the archives and monitored all phone calls. The lion was delighted with the cockroach’s report and asked him to produce graphs to describe production rates and analyze trends so that he could use them for presentations at board meetings. So the cockroach had to buy a new computer and a laser printer and recruit a fly to manage the IT department. The ant, who had been once so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings which used up most of her time. The lion came to the conclusion that it was high time to nominate a person in charge of the department where the ant worked. The position was given to the cicada (Front line Managers: JAG/Senior scale/Senior scale officers) whose first decision was to buy a carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office. The new person in charge, the cicada, also needed a computer and a personal assistant, whom he had brought from his previous department to help him prepare a work and budget control strategic optimization plan. The department where the ant works is now a sad place, where nobody laughs anymore and everybody has become upset. It was at that time the cicada convinced the boss, the lion, to start a climatic study of the office environment. Having reviewed the charges of running the ant’s department, the lion found out that the production was much less than before so he recruited the owl (HR- Personal development), a prestigious and renowned consultant to carry out an audit and suggest solutions. The owl spent 3 months in the department and came out with an enormous report, in several volumes, that concluded that “The department is overstaffed.” Guess who the lion fired first? The ant of course “Because she showed lack of motivation and had a negative attitude. ‘A bad system will beat a good person every time.’-W. Edwards Deming. This Ant and Lion management story is perfectly apt for the work culture in Indian Railways.
Why so hurry in including the vacancies in ESE-2025, without formulating its modalities. DOPT has given in- principle approval clearly stating that “The proposed scheme of recruitment shall not in any way, be in contravention to the decisions of the cabinet dated. 24.12.2019. Railway board Ltr.No. 2024/E(GR)I/37/1 Dt. 05.10.2024 is a clear violation of DOPT guidelines. Even after five years, the same system seems to be returning without much change. No cabinet discussion, no briefing on IRMS Modus operandi.
For more insights into the working culture of Indian Railways, please refer to the document attached via the link below.
https://www.scribd.com/document/648826718/British-Officers-in-Indian-Railways