Must dos to improve the Indian Railways.. 1. By far, the biggest problem of Indian Railways today is the tyranny of the vigilance department. In other words, it is nothing sort of bureaucratic/administrative terrorism. Most of the vigilance cases against the officers are fabricated, concocted, baseless and frivolous. Once a case is started,however unfounded it is,it almost destroys the career of that officer and Indian Railways loses that officer for good, for all practical purposes. Most of the vigilance officers are inexperienced, inefficient and thoroughly corrupt themselves they act out of jealousy and vengeance against the outspoken and straightforward officers. There are thousands of officers suffering from this motivated vigilance action and hence have lost any zeal or interest for working. The culture is so stifling that decision making has become a clear casualty. No officer aspiring for a promotion or about to retire does take any important decision. The loss to the organisation cant be quantified, but in terms of delay, lethargy and negativism it wouldnt be less than fifty thousand crores per annum. Any officer who takes a decision of any import will certainly face the wrath of over-zealous vigilance machinery sooner than later. There is no transparency in vigilance action. The stupidest decisions of the lowliest vigilance staff is not questioned or reversed by the highest officer of an executive department in railways. Further there is no natural justice done to the victims and often the most painful and lengthy process results into a very small action but years of suffering on the officer concerned and his family. Even criminal cases in the courts of law are more transparent, fair and expeditious and much less painful for the accused. Nobody questions the vigilance action however unfair, unfounded, baseless or ridiculous it may be. Even after the most stringent and lengthy procedure of enquiry by impartial officers nominated by vigilance branch itself, mostly the victim/accused is punished and ostracised for years. No wonder, the Railway officers are completely demotivated, disgruntled and a frustrated lot. Mr. Prime Minister, You are hereby requested to kindly find time to go through a sample list of vigilance cases. Simplifying the procedures involved in vigilance cases and setting a time frame along with making the vigilance officers accountable will unleash the working potential of thousands of officers and benefit the organisation by many thousand crores per annum. Fighting corruption is one thing but stifling all initiative and killing the motivation of bright, upright and strong officers by vigilance activism and a spineless management is against the future of Indian Railways and the country. The officers of Indian Railways need to be reassured that,whereas corruption will not be tolerated, innocent and upright officers would be protected at all costs by a balanced, transparent and impartial management. 2. The second biggest problem of railways is the multiplication of the number of officers, departments and levels of decision making. There are just too many officers in railways doing too little work and their number has gone up by leaps and bounds, justifying the Parkinsons law to the great detriment of Indian Railways. Most of the officers will privately agree to this even if they publicly speak otherwise in the interest of quicker promotions and convenient postings. Most unworthy fellows get promoted for doing nothing at all,as the bold and straightforward officers are sidelined by egoistic seniors or the over-zealous vigilance machinery. The multiplication of zones and divisions has also increased the number of officers many fold,though,the then Railway minister Mr. Nitish Kumar had promised on the floor of the parliament not to increase the number of officers and no extra revenue expencess with increasing number of zonal railways. Besides, the railway working has been badly suffering due to internecine wars and conflicts amongst different officers and departments. To my mind, the number of officers, divisions and zonal railways needs to be drastically curtailed and the number of staff instead maybe increased suitably wherever necessary. No decision should involve the participation of more than two levels and there should be a reasonable time frame for every desk to deal with a file. Accountability and time limit should be fixed for every work, file and decision. Even matters of personal grievance and benefit to the officers and employees should be disposed off within days and weeks, instead of months and years taken currently. Promotion to rankers must be given very very carefully so that only deserving and strong officers go up to decision making positions. Promotion shouldn’t depend upon the writing ability of officers rather HODs and PHODs should get a free hand in promoting the hard-working, sincere and honest officials. At the moment,those who dont take any decisions, do the maximum compromises on professional matters and exhibit the maximum degree of pliability and chamchagiri get promoted because there are no vigilance or disciplinary cases against them. Decisions should be delegated to the lowest possible level and reviewed only once. The current practice is that one man’s action is reviewed at four to five levels, thus making the cutting edge totally timid. Efficiency can’t be improved without empowering the officers at the ‘cutting edge’. There should be much less number of officers but much better cared in terms of perks and privileges. 3. For any revival of Indian Railways,the trust of the industry and the business on the policies of the organisation and capability of officers is a must. In the past ten years or so, almost all the customer-oriented policies have been reversed and large number of freight operators and customers of the freight services of railways have lost thousands of crores due to U-turn taken by the railway management, mostly under pressure from the accounts and vigilance branches of railways, the CVC, the CBI and other extraneous agencies. For example, the policies like Wagon investment scheme liberalised freight discount schemes etc. have been dumped by the public at large due to unilateral changes by the railway administration at various levels. Policy making shouldnt be questioned by investigating agencies and policies made after due diligence and with sound logic shouldnt be dumped too frequently to the detriment of the patrons of the freight services of railways. Rationalisation of policies and reassurance to the freight loading customers of Indian Railways can earn lakhs of crores of revenue to this organisation effortlessly. 4. Last but not the least,some useless departments and cadres of railways like the RBSS,Indian Railway Store Service, Railway Protection Force, Indian Railway Personnel Service, Indian Railway Accounts Service, Indian Railway Medical Service should be abolished and buried immediately as they add to the lethargy, corruption and inefficiency without in any way contributing to the welfare of the public or the betterment of the country. The various committees constituted for going into the affairs of Indian Railways on order to bring about improvement must interact with the middle level officers [JA and selection grade officers] in the field as they have the benefit of experience as well as long years of stake left in the organisation. At the senior most levels, officers are too worried about their own promotional prospects and post retirement parking lots whereas middle level officers will care about the future of the organisation much more intensely.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 18:31:54 +0000
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