New Delhi: Ten days after it was approved, the Ministry of Railways has not yet implemented its “immediate” order to rationalise and prune the rail bureaucracy.
On 30 September, the ministry, headed by Piyush Goyal, issued an order listing 24 posts that were to be removed from the Railway Board, as part of an attempt to have a leaner rail bureaucracy.
However, according to sources in the ministry, the order has been put on hold after staff members questioned the move.
“A lot of officers started asking, who will do the work if you keep getting rid of the posts? Each officer has a role. These are not idle posts,” said a senior official in the ministry.
A second senior officer confirmed that, even though the order had the approval of Goyal, it was put on hold by Railway Board chairman V.K. Yadav after questions were raised by officers.
Railways ministry spokesperson D.J. Narain, however, denied the claim. “Nothing has been put in abeyance. Things and decisions often take their course in Covid times. It is best not to speculate,” the spokesperson said.
Also Read: No new posts, remove re-engaged staff — austerity measures by Railways to soften Covid blow
On a pruning drive
The 30 September order, which has been accessed by ThePrint, said, “The work of the aforesaid transferred posts will be re-distributed by the Cadre Controlling Authorities (CCAs) amongst the existing officers.
“After incorporating these changes, the strength of the 10 organised services in Railway Board will be reduced from 160 to 136,” it said. “There will be a reduction of 24 posts in Railway Board.”
Titled “Rationalisation of posts of Organised Railway Services in Board’s Office”, the order also said these posts should be removed with “immediate effect”.
Although unusual by government standards, sources said “immediate effect” meant that the decision had to be implemented within days.
Last year, Goyal had reportedly asked the Board to prune the rail bureaucracy — one of the largest in any ministry — since multiple officers were believed to be looking after the same or similar functions.
The staff strength of the ministry was about 200 officials at the time, which was brought down to 160 in 2019 by transferring 40 officers of the director level and above to zonal railways.
In 2017, Goyal had said, “We have decided to cut the existing size of officials in Railway Board. The idea is to put them to field work to ensure better services and enhanced railway safety. The strength in Railway Ministry will be reduced and their role will be confined to monitoring and major policymaking.”
The move was part of a larger attempt to “decentralise” the railways, and strengthen field operations instead.
While the Modi government has sought to reform the functioning of the Railway Board over the last few years with several reforms such as restructuring and corporatising, merger of railway services, etc, the rail bureaucracy has resisted several of these attempts.
The ministry has set November as deadline for the most controversial of the decisions, that is, the merger of railway services.
Also Read: Railways looking to ensure ‘multi-tasking’ at junior levels as part of service merger plan
Of course the curtailment of expenditures should start from Ministry. Since most of the jobs are executed/implemented by Secretarial Level of officers, to keep more than one minister in one dept/ministry to be immediatelywithdraw, rather amalgamation of ministries of similar nature should be the right decision.
For the case of zonal railways, when there was no internet/WhatsApp/video calling facilities one GM & with team of HODs could control the pre-bifurcated/ trifurcated zonal railways well. Today how with modern facilities of technical support cannot GM with team of HODs/PHODs failing to manage? Day by day in the name cadre restructuring post of bottom level officers are being surrendered to create higher level posts.
To develop railway infrastructure the strength of front line staffs & bottom level officers is the urgent need. A P-way track is given fit for train running by SSE(PW), Carriage & wagon given fit by SSE(CW), Electric power given fit by SSE(El) at ELS, AC rake given fit by SSE(AC) & like that, not by any officers irrespective of group & grade.
One more point to mention that Railway Board should be there to monitor & maintain uniformity of railway work standard throughout India.
Good move by the government to cut the flab by reducing the officials. But I have a sincere request to make to the Hon. Railway Minister that the merger of departments and rationalaisation of posts should start from the Cabinet. Why can’t the government reduce the number of cabinet ministers by merging their portfolios. After all most of the work is done by the secretarial and support staff easing the burden of the Hon. Ministers. Why can’t the government rethink of merging the pensions of the lawmakers who are enjoying pension at their every political posting from corporator to MLA, MLA to MP and MP to Minister. A lot of money will be saved by the government by curtailing such duplication and triplication of non justified expenditures. Reducing &rationalising of vacancies in government departments and PSU’s/CPSU’s, Banks&Insurance companies should be the last priority of the government if at all it cares about the concern of the AAM AADMI as propoganda made by them particularly during this pandemic period when the unemployment rate has touched the sky and no positive offshoots of improvement are visible.
Right Sir
Cut short OFFICERS’S POSTS IN RAILWAYS, RATHER A GOOD STEP TO CUT OFF WASTEFUL EXPENDITURE ON THEIR TOURS, TA/DA, VEH./ Drivers and other staff/protocol attendance, night halts…showing inspection duties and so on .DURING 1970s, for eg, OVER SOUTH CENTRAL RAILWAY, IN SECUNDERABAD DIVISION, in RPF ONLY ONE ASC USED to CONTROL WORK LOAD, WHICH IS NOW SHARED BY HYDERABAD DIVISION, NANDED DIVISION and SECUNDERABAD DIVISION RPF GROUP A OFFICERS, 3SrDSCs;5/6 ASCs with several INSPECTORS….BUT, STRANGELY ENOUGH WITHOUT ANY EXTRA POSTING OF CONSTABLES OR HCs….
THIS MAY BE TO ACCOMODATE OFFICERS, NOW, RUMOURS THAT EVERY RPF POST/ CIRCLE / COMPANY PATTERN, SHALL BE HEADED BY ONE ASC
THEY HAVE TO SHOW SHOW THEIR DUTIES AND APARs…
HaHa. Do railway officers even work?
Correctly said sir, railway officers never work specially officers of group A cadre. They only sit in AC rooms and order the subordinate officials if B and C cadre. But irony is that our govt. instead of minimising their cadre trying to cut the strength of frontline staff in the name of downsizing. This happens only in India.
To, “The Print”
Is the constant use of “Modi Government” motivated or par for the course?
Not an objection; just asking
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