Centre to ensure Rotation in respect of all Sensitive Posts in Railways

Centre to ensure Rotation in respect of all Sensitive Posts in Railways

New Delhi: Based on a complaint by a Member of Parliament Mr.Patole, to the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, demanding shifting of railway officials occupying sensitive posts in the Railway Board, Zones, Divisions and importantly in the Workshop areas for years together, the Ministry of Personnel and Training (MoPT) has passed on instructions to all the government departments to ensure rotation in respect of all sensitive posts as immediately as possible.

Patole said that in a meeting held by Cabinet Secretary last month with senior officers of all ministries on mechanisms to adopt to ensure probity among government servants, it was emphasized that rotation needed to be carried out in respect of sensitive and non-sensitive posts and screening of officers. “All ministries have been directed to look into the matter and send inputs to vigilance section at the earliest. These details are also to be made part of the monthly DO letter to be sent to secretaries concerned,” said Patole.

Patole in his complaint had said that though Prabhu was making all out efforts to bring railways back on track, officials and their secretaries sitting on the same posts in commercial and vigilance departments for more than 15-20 years were creating hurdles in the process. There is already a Railway Board circular issued on February 18, 2009, about rotation of officials working in sensitive posts. The circular clearly states that based on Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) directives, officials manning sensitive posts should be rotated every two-three years to avoid developing vested interests.

Patole said as per the communication received from Prabhu’s office, any violation in this regard was required to be intimated to the Adviser (Vigilance) and CVO of the ministry of railways for remedial action. The matter was discussed by the full board and it was decided that tenure of officials on sensitive posts should continue to be four years. Despite that, Patole received a list of over 150 officials, secretaries, directors and personal secretaries posted in the Railway Board itself for more than 20 years in the same office.

In Nagpur division of South East Central Railway (SECR) and Central Railway, there were many officials and subordinates in sensitive posts for years together. Patole said rotational transfers were not being implemented and had urged Prabhu to do the needful.

It was also brought out that in locations like Kharagpur Workshop (Wagon Shop) etc., where iron scrap material is abundantly dumped by Railways, it was an established fact that a RPF Inspector is in continuous loot of the iron material rendered scrap who is also in connivance with the local goons. Surprisingly it is also learnt that his monthly illegal earnings are reportedly to be more than Rs.15-20 Lakhs on an average from the illegal theft of scrap material from the Kharagpur Workshop (Wagon Shop). However the concerned officials are not even bothered atleast to save the revenues of Railways, particularly when the Railway Minister himself is struggling hard to raise enough funds for modernisation of Indian Railways.  Can such loopholes/incidents be considered as the acts of responsible Railway servants sufficiently involved in derailing/thwarting the process of Railway Minister’s efforts by rendering the IR bankrupt in their respective jurisdictions?

The MP is highly particular on such culprits who are actually derailing the Railways and pushing the system bankrupt further.