How is it possible, when all Officers’ Associations and labour Unions including FROA against the cadre merger?

Majority of railway officers for merger of services -Piyush Goyal

Breach of privilege may be applied for wrong information is given to parliament

It must be applied too. Saving Railway is necessarily required for welfare and growth of lower strata of society and privilege of middle class, said a senior officer

The Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal told Rajya Sabha on Friday that ‘majority’ of officers have supported merger of all eight Group-A services, weeks after it had claimed that decision had been ‘unanimously’ supported by officials. but it’s a totally false statement given by the Minister because all officer’s Associations and labour Unions/Federations objected this decision including Federation of Railway Officer’s Associations (FROA).

Since the announcement of the Cabinet decision about the merger, different associations, including Indian Railway Traffic Service Officers’ Association and Indian Railways Civil Services Officers’ Forum, have written to the Prime Minister’s Office and railway minister Piyush Goyal pointing out that ‘no credible process of obtaining consensus was instituted’.

In a written reply to Congress member P. L. Punia’s question whether many senior officers of railways are against the decision to form Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS), Goyal stated, ‘Majority of officers have supported formation of IRMS. However, officers of Indian Railway Traffic Service, Indian Railway Personnel Service and Indian Railway Accounts Service have submitted their suggestions, which will be kept in view while finalising the modalities of IRMS. The modalities of IRMS will be finalised in consultation with the department of personnel and training and approval of alternative mechanism’.

While announcing the Cabinet decision on December 24, Piyush Goyal had said, ‘The Modi government has taken the bold decision to meet next level challenges and deal with various existing difficulties. Though there was a view to have two services, all officers unanimously supported the need for a single service’.

It has learnt that when the proposal for merger of the railway services came up before the Cabinet, two ministers had flagged their concerns and observed how the plan may not go down well with employees.

In response to another question on the consultative process adopted by railways, Goyal said, ‘A two-days conference of railway officers was held on December 7-8, 2019 in this regard. The matter has been further discussed with Railway Officers’ Associations and employees’ associations in January 2020’.

Still the sangoshthi fiasco is being repeated

After Piyush Goyal’s reply in Rajya Sabha, Officers discussed in different social media platforms and said, ‘MR & CRB have memorized this.. like engineering students, they say what they have memorized, irrespective of what is being asked’.

They said, “We should expose the lack of logic in cadre merger and the deceit resorted to through Sangosthi”.

“The MR is clearly biased. He resorted to falsehood and deceit against large sections of his own officers. There was no clear discussion on merger in the facade of Sangosthi. He lied on the floor of the Parliament. It’s totally illogical to merge various Cadres coming from diverse selections and back grounds. It’s stupidity of the highest order to expect it to work. He is the worst individual to have occupied the high post. Shame on such a terrible liar”, they said.

Another officer said, “Breach of privilege may be applied for wrong information is given to parliament. Opposition may ask for initiate breach of privilege against Minister for Railways because he is misguiding the parliament and whole the Nation”.

No Plan To Import Trains

Railway minister Piyush Goyal said there was no plan to get complete redesign of coaches or procurement of full train rakes from foreign suppliers. In a reply in Rajya Sabha, the minister said, ‘However, a transfer of technology (ToT) contract for development of capabilities for production to commissioning including design, development (prototyping), manufacturing and testing of aluminium body passenger coaches of eight variants (five variants of broad gauge loco-hauled coaches and three variants of standard gauge Metro coaches) has been awarded by Modern Coach Factory, Rae Bareli to a Korean company. Based on these facilities, manufacture of coaches shall be done at MCF and not through import’.

He added there was no plan to start import of complete train sets from foreign suppliers. However, Integral Coach Factory, Chennai has initiated procurement process for only propulsion equipment and control system for manufacturing of 44 train sets.

Courtesy: With Inputs from TOI