Chairman Railway Board Ashwani lohani on Tuesday said it takes time to bring changes in work culture. He said this a day after the Railways suspended four class three officials for employing trackmen as domestic helps in their homes. He also said that such incidents cannot be totally eliminated in an organisation of 1.3 million employees.
“We have suspended all of them. We are committed to work culture reforms and we are doing this not because it has been covered by the media, but because it is the right thing to do. In an organisation of 1.3 million employees, this takes time and stray cases cannot be totally eliminated,” lohani said adding as and when such cases come to the fore, action would most definitely be taken against the erring officials.
Soon after he took as CRB last August, lohani had ordered that no railway staff or machinery be misused in any way, as part of their efforts to cut down on VIP culture in the national transporter. Sources in the ministry say that after the order, almost all the men had returned to duty, except a few.
lohani said few cases highlighted now were “rare” and the ministry had been able to eliminate such instances in most regions across the country. Even railway union chiefs said that such instances had come down drastically.
“After CRB lohani’s instructions, such cases have really come down, but obviously they have not been eliminated,” Shivagopal Mishra, general secretary of the All India Railwaymen’s Federation said.