Central Railway—The Headless Chicken of Indian Railways
On 17 February orders for the appointment of a General Manager (#GM) for the Central Railway (#CR) were issued. A PM-level inauguration took place in #NCRTC on 22 February and it was anticipated that the officer selected, who is currently serving as MD/NCRTC, would report shortly thereafter.
However, as of today, over one month has passed and the country’s oldest zone remains headless without a GM despite orders from the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (#ACC), the highest body for selections whose decisions are signed by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. It is unclear how an ACC-level appointment can be delayed for over a month.
Furthermore, CR has been without a GM since the previous GM’s unfortunate death in harness on 11 November last year. For almost five months now, there has been no regular GM. There have been serious #accidents on the #CentralRailway resulting in the loss of life of several rail users (#Mumbra & #CSMT). The railway will soon be serving the mega event – #Kumbh at Nasik.
Indian Express: “Thane train passengers dead fall of Mumbra”
Times of India: “Two lives lost after flash protest at Mumbai’s CSMT brings suburban services to a halt nearly an hour”
Firstly, the delay in posting and the uncertainty in joining reflect poorly on railway administration and have diminished the institutional position of the GM. This should be considered an administrative unsafe action by the Ministry of Railways.
Many senior officers who on one hand praise the Hon’ble PM for allocating unprecedented financial support to Indian Railways, wonder why the present leadership of Ministry of Railways is working hard to sabotage the post of general manager and lower its dignity.
Already requirement of having completed a tenure of DRM has been done away with as prerequisite to be even considered as a general manager has made the selection criteria very weak—now pattern of delays seen in recent past shows that need of this role itself is now in question. So if one says that the post of GM is fast becoming irrelevant—one should not be surprised.
The media had previously criticised CR after events linked to a #union strike at CSMT resulted in the run-over of several innocent passengers. The media criticised that the incumbents serving as GMs do not have a basic understanding of Maharashtra, its capital Mumbai, which is the geography served by CR.