In a major decision to shake up the well-entrenched Railway officialdom, the Centre has ordered transfer of 200 officials operating from Rail Bhawan and the national transporter’s Delhi/NCR offices to various zones across the country.
The Railway Ministry has identified officials functioning without “mandates”
from the national headquarters, mostly to remain in Delhi
and retain a Government accommodation.
Through an order dated November 13, 2017, the Secretary of the Railway Board has conveyed to the Chairman Railway Board (CRB), Board Members, and the Director Generals (DGs) to cut short their staff strength by 40 per cent and send them to zones and divisions.
The total strength of officers within the Indian Railways network stands at 10,500. Out of them 2,000, including 300 class one officers, are posted at Rail Bhawan and offices belonging to the Railways within the NCR region. “The Railway Minister has directed to identify at least 200 posts for transferring to Zonal Railways. He has also directed that all the Board Members may identify at least 40per cent of their posts for transfer to Zonal Railways. A list of such posts may be submitted at earliest,” said the order.
A senior rail official said the recent directive asking the senior rail officials to travel fortnightly as common passengers to understand the problems faced by the people, has turned futile.
“The officials are making excuses to avoid such journeys. The feedback was not good so the Ministry had to take this harsh decision to issue orders for transfer of officials out of Delhi,” said a top official requesting not to be named.
Not long ago, CRB Ashwani lohani wrote to employees stressing the need to bring about all-round improvement in the working of the Indian Railways.
In an effort to raise efficiency and boost productivity, the Ministry also launched ‘Project Saksham’ as a comprehensive training programme for all the 13 lakh employees in its system. This will be the world’s largest and first-ever such massive training programme at one go.
“The week-long training in skills and domain knowledge will be imparted to all the employees of Indian Railways with a focus to ‘make a difference’ to the job performance. Under this plan, all employees in each zone will be put through a week’s training in skills and knowledge relevant to their work area over next one year,” said a senior railway official. A communication to this effect from CRB has been sent to all General Managers of zonal railways and railways production units or PSUs.
last week, the 164-year-old organisation directed all its officials and staff at the headquarters at Rail Bhawan to come to work in “presentable” outfit and also develop a corporate culture. The Railway Ministry had issued directives that all rail officials and staff should report to their work smartly and neatly dressed.
The Railways is already working on a project to dress up its staff which deals directly with the passengers. And it has roped in leading fashion designer Ritu Beri for designing the uniforms for such employees.