जनवरी 2022: एक सेवानिवृत्त वरिष्ठ रेल अधिकारी की डायरी से..

एक सेवानिवृत्त वरिष्ठ रेल अधिकारी ने क्षुब्ध होकर एक डायरी एंट्री की थी एक साल पहले – जनवरी 2022 में – हमारी #KMG और #AIDS सीरीज से प्रेरित होकर उन्होंने इसे हमसे इस हफ्ते साझा किया। इस डायरी की एंट्री में उन्होंने जो-जो बातें लिखी हैं उन पर पिछले कई महीनों से हमने विस्तार से लिखा है। इससे यह बात और दृढ़ता से आगे आती है कि रेल के बारे में गहराई से सोचने वाले एक ही निष्कर्ष पर पहुंच रहे हैं।

चूंकि ये डायरी की एंट्री थी, हमने इसमें वेब लिंक डालकर आपके लिए सहज ग्राह्य बनाने का प्रयास किया है। उनका ये मानना है कि एक साल पहले की उनकी पीड़ा अभी कुछ कम हुई है, क्योंकि #Railwhispers के मुखर लेखन से अराजक तत्वों पर लगाम तो लगी है। लेकिन बहुत कुछ, उनका मानना है, इस पर निर्भर करता है कि वर्तमान रेलवे बोर्ड सदस्य क्या करते हैं। क्या वे अपने अधीनस्थ अधिकारियों के शोषण पर लगाम लगाएंगे?

प्रस्तुत है उक्त वरिष्ठ सेवानिवृत्त रेल अधिकारी की डायरी की एंट्री का कुछ हिस्सा:

Years ago, in a prescient piece in ‘Swarajya’, biggest challenge which was put to political leadership was taming rail’s rent seeking mandarins.

यह देखें: “Rent Seekers Of Rail Bhavan: If Modi Wants To Transform Railways, He Must Tame Its Bureaucracy First“

इसकी मूल बातें ये थीं-

• To set things in order in the Indian Railways, it is imperative to tame the rail bhavan culture.

• Shutting down departments and slashing more than 50 per cent of bureaucracy will ensure productivity, improve transparency and cut down costs.

As Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh see restiveness due to RRB recruitments, one is led to incredulous discovery-position of railways’ HR head is vacant since several months!

Golden principle followed by government has been to use extensions as exception and allow consolidated tenures only for very few positions. This allows entrenchment to be rooted out naturally as person superannuates.

In IR unfortunately, this got a go by and list of blunders make this ministry stand as a sore thumb in otherwise arena of stellar performing ministries of this government which delivered on reforms and development.

The three Chairmen selected out of five in past eight years had not spent any meaningful time in railways at positions which groom a person for leadership. Unfortunately, out of these three two got extensions-one was removed when there was spurt in accidents with one at Khatauli near Delhi shaking the country up – taking toll of a minister. If one sees all five appointments of Chairmen, one finds three have been granted extensions, including the current one who had only six months to retire.

In order to tame the raging internecine interdepartmental battles, starting with good intent, but at hands of helmsmen who barely worked in railways, administrative structure of railways stands messed up. Discipline and hard labour characterise rail working-with subordinate formations sensitive to the credibility of leadership. The legend of MS Gujral and E. Sreedharan rest on their personal credibility.

Incomplete cadre merger, process which began at hands of rail leaders who never had anything to show as their achievement in railways, has left the organisation broken. Son-in-law of former Indira cabinet minister and relation of Lalu and Mulayam was proverbial last straw and yes, he too got extension.

Expansion of Railway Board by adding two members from five to seven with bevy of DGs to a Board which has four members – today as IR is rocked by accidents – three in a span of fortnight – and student agitation, current composition of Railway Board sets off alarm bells. Out of these three accidents two are attributed to rolling stock which function under Member Traction and Rolling Stock (MTRS), one notes that this chair is essentially vacant after current incumbent went on leave partly in protest and has applied for early retirement. Third accident in Jodhpur, track is held responsible, which is under Member Infrastructure (MInfra) who currently holds charge of all four big technical departments (these departments were under three members in original scheme, then five and finally two-all in past 7-8 years). He retires in March 2022.

Today: MTRS is on leave awaiting early retirement, MInfra retires in March’22, Member Finance is on extension, Chairman has six months service and he will serve on 6 month extension thereafter. Member Operations also superannuates soon. Position of Member HR has been wound up-work given to a Director General position which is vacant since past more than six months.

One is also alarmed at the fiasco of IRCTC where bungled up revenue sharing letters led to wild fluctuations in the stock market and required a poke from none other than PMO to set it right early. Similar problem is seen in hasty finalisation of contract with erstwhile GE Transport for diesel locomotives as IR moved to full electrification of its tracks. Piyush Goyal incurred wrath of corporates when he tried to get this factory produce electric locomotives. Officers who messed up Vande Bharat project are no longer in Rail Bhawan but one of them served twice as long as one could have normally. He, continues to get patronage by tweaking policy of house retention (railwaymen can retain official accommodation in previous place of posting when posted to north-eastern region-but IR in its own unique ways granted this exception to this officer, when posted at PM’s constituency at a location which hosts VVIPs! – thanks to the son-in-law top man).

It is time that systems be restored and set right. Deep entrenchment in IR demands that regular superannuations be stuck to, detailed dossiers be drawn and claims made be verified before awarding post retirement appointments. Raging talk of the railway system is that certain retired officer to meet his personal ambition which he could not meet in his service time has especially taken intercom number of post he aspired for while in employment! With such ambitious persons, old entrenched networks get strengthened which otherwise has been antithesis of this government’s approach.

यहां जो बातें आई हैं, उनमें ये प्रमुख है कि रेल व्यवस्था में #entrenchment बहुत गहरा है और नेतृत्व की विश्वसनीयता बहुत कम, क्योंकि ऐसे रेल अधिकारी रेल भवन में ऊपर बैठे हैं जिनके पास अपने एचीवमेंट कुछ नहीं हैं। साथ ही ये बात भी आती है कि कैसे क्वार्टर रिटेंशन देने से सिस्टम में ऐसे लोगों को ओब्लाइज किया गया जिन्होंने रेल को नुकसान पहुंचाया, लेकिन यही तो #KMG की खास स्टाइल है।

हाल में निकाला गया लेवल-16 को हाउस रिटेंशन देने का आर्डर एक ऐसा ही निर्णय है – अगर देखें तो आज का बोर्ड भी कहीं न कहीं डगमगा रहा है। रेल भवन को हल्का करने के प्रयास भी फेल हो गए हैं, बाहुबली अफसर अपना बाहुबल सफलता से दिखाकर दिल्ली में अपने को और अधिक मजबूत कर रहे हैं – और वह भी तब, जब रेगुलर बोर्ड बैठा है! ये समझ नहीं आ रहा कि सेफ्टी – कागज और पोजीशन बनाने से कैसे ठीक होगी?

बहरहाल, यह रेल से आज भी भावनात्मक रूप से गहरे जुड़े एक सेवानिवृत्त वरिष्ठ रेल अधिकारी की ये एक पुरानी डायरी की एंट्री थी और उस समय का परिदृश्य इसमें झलकता है। वैसे आज का #KMG तब भी था, यह एक विचारणीय बात है! क्रमशः जारी..

प्रस्तुति: सुरेश त्रिपाठी