Restore the faith of the people in Government and Governance!

Cadre Merger that Never Was..

The perpetually warring cadres of Indian Railways were said to be the curse of the government. They were said to oppose reforms, fought for resources and lobbied for sub-optimal projects. The Prime Minister ordered the right anti-dote for the sickness – MERGE THE CADRES.

Accordingly a proposal was made for merger and the Cabinet approved the plan in double quick time, such was the urgency of the matter.

The then Chairman Railway Board, V K Yadav, asked for and got an extension for a year to implement the plan.

This was many months before the COVID crisis, yet no action was taken.

Brushing the plan under the carpet on account of COVID is was a convenient escape plan.

The cadre merger plan met with vehement resistance from the Civil Services Entrants, who claimed that the interdepartmental fight of IRSME and IRSEE should have been solved just by merging these two cadres.

Why create a serious technical crisis by bringing humanities and engineering graduates into a single fold?

Well, the plan doesn’t end there.

There was a proposal to restructure the Railway Board, first such exercise after 1925, when the Railway Board was created.

The Cabinet was assured, which was accepted in good faith, that the Board would be restructured on functional basis, with separate Members looking after Passenger Business, Freight Business, Infrastructure, Finance and headed by the CRB, now wielding the power of a Chairman/CEO, Railway Board.

All these posts would be ex-cadre. Also, there would be a Director General, Human Resources (DG/HR), an ex-cadre post again.

Now, not only is the IRMS cadre nowhere near creation, having been assigned to an Empowered Group of Ministers or Secretaries, the restructuring of the Board, which was a far easier task, has been put off as well.

As a result, following are the distortion’s that have crept in and being further enhanced:

1. The post of Financial Commissioner/Rlys, originally encadred for the Indian Railways Accounts Service (IRAS) continues to be so. An Additional Member or IRAS, Majula Rangarajan was elevated to the post of Financial Commissioner.

2. After Manjula Rangarajan, Naresh Salecha, again from the IRAS and much junior to officers already working as General Managers, has been promoted to this apex level post.

3. If the Board level positions were not to be filled on cadre lines, the very fundamental of the proposed IRMS, why have IRAS officers been given this position even superseding other eligible officers?

4. The post of Member Staff, which was to be surrendered under the Cabinet Approved reforms, continues to exist. Member Traction, Rajesh Tiwari held this post on dual charge basis for many months. Upon protests by the IRPS cadre, the Additional Member (Staff), Anand Singh Khati was promoted as DG/HR and then as Member Staff again superseding many senior officers.

5. It is not clear if the Railway Board has been restructured or not. The post of Member Rolling Stock (MRS) encadred to IRSME should have gone to Lalit Chandra Trivedi, General Manager, East Central Railway, who was eligible by all norms.

6. In another case of discrimination against the IRSME, L. C. Trivedi was never promoted. If Restructuring of the Board was the cause for not promoting L. C. Trivedi, why was the post of MRS not surrendered? Why was it given on a dual charger basis to P. C. Sharma an IRSS officer and then of the rechristened MTRS to Rajesh Tiwary of IRSEE?

7. All Board level posts are now open to all cadres and are slated to be filled from old cadres. The appropriate step would have been to make new recruitment rules and define eligibility of candidates for these if Rail Bhawan was serious about the Cabinet approved cadre merger plan.

8. Meanwhile, for the second year in a row the Railway Ministry hasn’t sent indents to the UPSC for Group-A recruitments. This is going to create an immediate vacuum at Junior and Senior Scales, medium term vacuum in JA Grade and massive disruptions about 15 years from now. But, who cares while the whole organisation is chasing a mirage of a combined cadre of IRMS?

It is quite clear that behind the iron curtains of the Rail Bhawan dubious games are being played to much frustration and anger of officers.

Even the faintest sketch of the shape that the IRMS will take hasn’t been drawn, not to speak of its recruitment rules, qualification criteria and the modus operandi of recruitment by the UPSC.

The DOPT, either has its hands full, or doesn’t care for eight thousand Group-A Officers of the Indian Railways, a group larger than most other cadres put together.

Intervention of the PMO or the DOPT will restore faith of Railway Officers in government and governance.

Presented: Surresh Tripathi

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