The Ask, Part-II: Bring Transparency, Ethics & Accountability-on house retention policy
To help the government focus on key issues, we have started a series simply titled “The Ask”. This will just lay on table issues which Ministry of Railways has been desperate to avoid, as this will hit at the heart of corrupt cartels, culture of mega tenders, Khan Market Gang (#KMG) & All India Delhi Service (#AIDS)
On March 12, 2025: “The Ask : Part-I” asked simple question: why not strengthen the foundation – why no money put in improving your failure prone #track-circuits and #axle-counters?
This #ASK goes to the very heart of much tom-tommed #Kavach-why Kavach does not solve underlying #Safety problems and how new failure modes get introduced in railway system, with staggering complexity in name of Kavach. It falls on its face on simple question: Would Kavach have prevented devastating #Balasore? Answer is big NO even after spending lakhs of crores-modifying EVERY #EMU, #Locomotive, #Maintenance Vehicle, station master’s console, laying optical fibre for almost one lakh KM-it would still blame a #Driver or an #ESM for its failure. Well, take a look at the gazette on Kavach. See “The Ask: Part-I”.
When simple #interlocking system is beyond the competence of your system, how can a system built on this shaky foundation bear the weight of tons of interconnected and distributed electronics and radio network?
See this X-Thread:
The Ask : Part-II: Why do you want to institutionalise a system which breeds corruption?
It would be good for railways’ mandarins to peruse:
Perhaps these lessons were taught in Wharton also. It would not be a bad idea to recapitulate them, #Mantri ji.
We have dealt the subject of spiralling down of railways’ leadership in:
Feb 3, 2025: “Urgent Action Needed-IR has become a Municipal Service, Part-I”
Feb 15, 2025: “Urgent Action Needed-IR has become a Municipal Service, Part-II”
We have consistently highlighted the lack of #rotation as the key to railways ills. Smaller zonal railways have exacerbated the problem.
While smaller zones made officers spend their careers in smaller geographies, being able to stay in one city takes away the cake. In no other department of Government of India is an officer allowed to retain house for any other reason except for completion of school session of children.
In #IndianRailways the top 100 managerial positions which consist of DRMs, GMs, Members and Chairman are allowed to retain their #sarkari houses at the last place of posting without any penal rent.
One knows that for a 24 month tenure, if house is retained in Mumbai or Delhi, the silent, untaxed perk given would be valued in crores of rupees. How can this be even allowed when person moved on promotion, or as DRM where he get a designated/earmarked accommodation or to a post that would be a terminal posting of one’s career?
For DRMs this becomes a justification to move back to last station of posting where many have already spent more than 75-80% of their career, cementing networks of connivance, nexus of #corruption and #protection. In one startling case in Central Railways we pointed that an officer barely a few month old in Mumbai, got a residence and retained it for family while being posted elsewhere as #DRM! Phew!
How can Ministry of Railways give such an untaxed perk valued at crores? If an officer is so posessive of their sarkari flat or bungalow, why is this not seen as a demerit of that officer? It has become routine that even after this policy, tens of lakhs of penal rents have been waived off for general managers. It is this culture that has led to sad arrest of officers with single digit service. Why this house retention is continuing even after 22 years in the name of new zones?
Hon’ble PM #Modi ji, when your top 100 leaders of IR can be compromised for #house-retention, how can you expect them to give robust advice and trust them for being ethical? Officers are invariably returning to the last stations and moving to the same houses.
Readers may like to see:
March 6, 2025: “सिरझटक निर्णय लेना रेल मंत्रालय की बन गई परंपरा”
March 16, 2025: “Electronics Technology for Hyperloop Project to be developed at ICF: Ashwini Vaishnaw”
March 13, 2025: “The Act of Relabelling”
March 15, 2025: “The Gazeteers”