Atleast not for Railway Safety-Logic Defying Decisions of an about-to-retire Member Infrastructure
How can the #KMG be behind as Modi government starts in its 3.0 avatar?
Mr Vaishnaw, #PitriPaksh is just few days away, do penance as law of Karma will catchup surely
Decisions of #MemberInfrastructure, #RailwayBoard, #AnilKumarKhandelwal gets conclusively proven that with #Modi-3.0, #AshwiniVaishnaw-2.0 comes #SudheerSense-4.0, just that it better be called #KhandelwalSense now!
Understand the chronology
Sudheersense-1.0 was in #UPA2 and earlier. This was largely a #metaphor, which costed career of several #Railway-ministers. This was turbocharged as #Sudheersense-2.0 when #NDA came in power with philosophy of #antyoday to serve the last man of the society on the ladder by transforming the governance and improving delivery-by performance improvement. Even the position of #PM was renamed as #pradhansewak.
This led to #SudheerKumar donning skin of being a so-called #transformation-expert and ushered in SudheerSense-2.0. Remember, if greenfield private production of #locomotives could not be done, even with #Lalu as railway minister and in his hometown, with Sudheersense-2.0, he gamed and delivered #Madhepura and #Marourah in Lalu’s political and familial territory while arch-rival #BJP held the railway ministry.
What sophistry!
But Sudheersense-2.0 could not get him position of #GeneralManager nor could he become a #Member of #RailwayBoard and had to retire without realising his life’s ambition for which he attempted to destroy career of dozen of his seniors in his batch. Though by this time he had spread the virus of tinkering with organised services of #IndianRailways in a manner which is now reaping its first harvest of bodies in uncontrolled spate of #accidents and #corruption.
Luck favours the brave they say, but in Khan Market Gang (#KMG) riddled railways, luck favours the All India Delhi Service (#AIDS).
Sudheersense-3.0
For inexplicable reasons, #PiyushGoyal was replaced by a political newbie, #AshwiniVaishnaw. People say that it was the advisors of Mr Goyal that led to his downfall. However, Piyush Goyal was very focused on improving the #Safety record of railways. Perhaps his undoing was his reliance on his political appointees in his cell. This is where Modi ji wrongly assessed the work load demands of Ministry like #Railways. He perhaps treated railways like another Ministry-this meant he gave railways to part time Ministers. The thought being, pump money in projects, bring #corporate style dashboards and management and desired change will happen.
Mr #Vaishnaw after a short stint in the government as an #IAS officer, had served in #GE and #Siemens in past. He pulled out #SudheerKumar from retirement and posted him as his #advisor on net zero projects. In his entire stint as advisor, Sudheer Kumar hardly devoted one hour in net zero projects. He was just living his deep buried unfulfilled desires.
Under Modi ji, Ministries having operational role like Home, Defence etc. did not see changes in cadres occupying leadership positions (#Agniveer scheme does not impact on leadership structure of armed forces which continues to be steep pyramid as before, manned in the ways that have not been changed). But in the railways, while money started to pour, pressure on balancing its #expenditure with #earning was take off (with merger of #railbudget in general budget), leadership structure changed fundamentally (with #DRMs given construction role), seniority upended (new mechanism of #empanelment for general managership and memberships), stopping recruitment of #engineers (from a scenario where the toppers of #Engineering Services Examination of #UPSC came to Indian Railways). This led to what was feared, after pumping more than 10 lakh crore rupees, not a day passes when there is no #accident.
And, by the way, the apex academy of Indian Railways, #NAIR-alma mater of all #UPSC recruited officers of Indian Railways, which handled railway safety and leadership training was most insidiously shut down. To add salt to the bruised pride of railway officers, DG of the academy is made to sit in a professor’s chamber and nominated or earmarked DG’s residence is denied to him (as both chamber and bungalow were given to a private individual with hardly any academic background, incidentally a friend of the #minister, brought as the Vice Chancellor of Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya).
Trains derailing with wild abandon, #morale of senior railway officers crushed, #corruption protected unprecedentedly, #honesty brutally punished. This darkest period of Indian Railways is referred by railwaymen as #Sudheersense-3.0 infected. Railway officers describe this as, as despairing, as hopeless as the darkest phase of #COVID pandemic. Virus of #Sudheersense is proving no less deadly. The souls of hundreds of poor killed by #Sudheersense will not get deliverance-Ashwini Vaishnaw’s continued protection of #Sudheersense makes future even more bleak.
Many railway officers say that in coming pitri-paksh they would pray for the deliverance of souls of poor #Passengers whose only fault was that they trusted their #employer when they bought #ticket for their last journey.
Post May, 2024
Though on few occasions #government did act, like when there was no DG/Safety, on our pointing out how can winters would be faced. DG/Safety was posted in a hurry. Similarly, on repeated pointing that #VandeBharat is not most optimal solution, #AmritBharat was introduced at much smaller price giving equivalent service.
However, after electoral drubbing and disenchantment of railway users, government, several of our suggestions are being implemented by the government.
“Railways to build 10,000 non-ac coaches over next two fiscal years”
One such decision was to manufacture more non-ac coaches. The earlier #production was clearly biased towards ac-coaches and #VandeBharats where the “labharthi” segment was not travelling. We had even pointed out how Sudheersense meant getting less by paying more.
Also, after bringing #RailSafety to all time low, in a major roll-back, #DRMs will handle their traditional role of operations and safety.
But can railways heave sigh of relief?
Sadly no, #Sudheersense-4.0 has now crept in to the system and is now called #KhandelwalSense.
We were approached by several #civil-engineers when Minister for Railways gave this interview:
This was followed by an interview of Member Infrastructure (#MInfra)-
As several serving #engineering officers expressed shock and concern at this ill thought of decision, we reached out to atleast three former #ME (Member Engineering) and few #IRSE General Managers who had evaluated these fastenings in past.
Yes dear reader, these #fastenings are not novel, they were evaluated and not accepted in past by #RDSO almost three decades ago as practical and safe alternative to current fastenings.
We now bring how #KhandelwalsSense attacks long term safety of railways in his effort to get #extension and become the #Chairman, Railway Board. At stake is livelihood of scores of #vendors and #safety of rail. Cost implication is not just human lives, but tens of thousands of crores in next few decades. Remember, we took more than four decades to change from #wooden to #concrete-sleepers. #Maraowrah and #Madhepura are living testimonies of #Sudheersense-2.0, costing us almost ₹80,000 crore, one dithers when #Sudheersense-4.0 aka #Khandelwalsense hits us.
Also, several vendors shared that major manipulation, potentially of ₹6,000 crore in a #Tender floated by #CLW at the behest of Mr #Khandelwal.
We, in subsequent articles, deal with the timing and suspicious intent of recent decisons of Mr Khandelwal as he is set to #retire and he is tempting the Mr #Vaishnaw with #Sudheersense-4.0.
Hon’ble MR Ashwini Vaishnaw ji, pitri-paksh is just few days away. Do penance as law of #Karma will catchup surely.