300 Dead – is there still a doubt on choice between Modi-Sense Vs Sudheer-Sense?
We dealt with “When Officer Becomes Vendor”, but when Vendor becomes Minister?
It is time that Mr Vaishnaw changes the company he has been keeping. His #Advisor and advisory group has been a discredited lot, known more for palace intrigues than for their engineering skills. They believe only in one mantra – the only answer to a problem is a contract – forgetting that contract based working is a mercenary approach, where motivation is profit, not service!
Did something go wrong in Balasore, no Vaishnaw sahab, something went seriously wrong on the 3rd Floor of Rail Bhawan. Balasore was, what the railwaymen say, a consequential accident
Devastating collision involving three trains has shaken the conscience of the country. 300 dead and more than thousand injured is the figure that has emerged – making this accident one of the deadliest accidents in the history of Indian Railways.
We compiled feedback received from our esteemed readers, many of whom have served at the senior most positions in Rail Bhawan. We published the #thread compiling their feedback here, please go through-
After the above picture was shared on twitter, we got further more inputs. This article is based on inputs of two officers.
Baptism of Mr Vaishnaw
One retired senior officer mentioned that it was time that the Railway Minister understood that as a corporate leader, that he fashioned himself as, he with his #Advisor rode roughshod over his officers, often ridiculing them. Today he saw for himself what railwaymen fear in their minds when they make decisions. No railwayman worth his salt wants his decision to lead to such accidents. While social media hailed him for leading from front, we saw a man being baptised.
He saw how coordinated, without break, without being threatened by 56J, railwaymen work, something which he saw for the very first time. Even if he were not there, the Chairman/Railway Board not there, these railwaymen would have worked with same zeal-this is how rail-systems work. This is how railways survived surfeit of political and bureaucratic leadership.
Railways like air, road or waterways brings its own challenges. Every inch of permanent way, every inch of Overhead Equipment (OHE), every signal, every piece of rolling stock is a potential point of failure-maintained 24×7 with human intervention. With such a big human interface, integrity of systems, competence of leadership matters utmost.
Corporate culture that he and his advisor so adore, have been more keen to sell products, twist the conditions of working to their favour. Mr Vaishnaw studied as an engineer but never worked as one. In Balasore, he saw for himself what real world systems are. It is providential that he served as a #collector in Balasore.
It is time that Mr Vaishnaw changes the company he has been keeping. His #Advisor and advisory group has been a discredited lot, known more for palace intrigues than for their engineering skills. They believe only in one mantra – the only answer to a problem is a contract – forgetting that contract based working is a mercenary approach, where motivation is profit, not service. I am not against profit, but the core of your motivation matters. Railway maintenance is increasingly outsourced and existing in-house resources are being systematically attacked by #Tenderjeevis.
Mr Vaishnaw, Balasore was a consequential accident – primary trigger lay in the 3rd Floor of Rail Bhawan!
Prima-facie, it all points to a human error. But how can in era of failsafe interlocking and SIL-4 systems, such a thing happen?
Let me put a another point which troubled me and which was commented by #RailWhispers-how can bio toilet instead of flushing out the waste at press of a button, throw waste back at the passenger? Please read here once again- “टॉयलेट की गंदगी यात्री पर पंप हुई, फर्म पर मढ़ा गया दोष, बरी हुए अधिकारी“
To me the two are linked. Scales of damage are different but at the root is oversimplification of engineering practice. Anyone can do anything is the flawed mantra.
Also, there is another common point-supervision of human actors in working. Railways have a very large human interface in its maintenance and operations. Over decades, procedures have evolved to handle the human element. That is the reason railways run 24×7 without a hitch. But when one interferes with these procedures, failures like ones quoted happen.
#Problem_1:
Top leadership in level 15 and above are stuck in quicksand of IRMS – applications, appeals and heart breaks. For the past few years, the command structure of Indian Railways has been disrupted. Juniors sat as looking after and even full time Board members, interrupting natural command and feedback flow. This according to me has been #problem_1 which leads to overall deterioration in supervision of human actors in subordinate formations, upsetting the delicate equilibrium.
#Problem_2:
#Problem_2 has been a frequent change of mind on vital issues. Open line vs construction coordination was a settled problem. Now a new actor called #Gatishakti has barged in. Totally new command structure against its original aim, was put in Divisions with DRMs more accountable for this successor to the Transformation directorate sitting in 3rd Floor #SheeshMahal of #Advisor presided by Railway Minister himself. Earlier, railway leadership did not interfere in divisions. Not any more, from managing three ADRMs to an assortment of CPMs, train running is no longer DRM’s top most priority. Branch officers better keep CPMs of Gatishakti happy-3rd Floor is watching.
SIL4, failsafe interlocking, Kavach works only when everything else is in place, if someone wires a toilet wrongly or a point machine wrongly, what would protections do? Man with a screwdriver is a human being. His supervisors are more worried about new interfaces – he is working under a leadership which is battered under the guise of IRMS. Earlier it was only APAR-not anymore. Incompetent and exploitative #Vigilance working cahoots with #contractors, make sure that every #Tender is contested not in #IREPS but in vigilance questionnaires. Every frontline officer knows that there is a nexus of RKJha-RKRai-AshokKumar and their clones who will decide their fate, not their DRMs, GMs or even their Members. Who should they listen to then?
Safety Ecosystem – Did someone tell you that it is the Safety Directorate’s Job?
Did someone tell you that by bringing more SAGs of #AIDS to the Rail Bhawan safety directorate? have you strengthened your safety?
You, as usual, unfortunately, have been taken for a ride Mantri ji !
Safety is not in inspections, that is quaternary check.
Primary safety is ensured by men with tools on line and RDSO which lays down and audits processes. Secondary is by their supervising formation of branches in divisions and Tertiary is by the Principal Heads at Zonal HQs.
We dealt with “When Officer Becomes Vendor”, but when Vendor becomes Minister?
Look at RDSO – just because M/s Goyal & Vaishnaw interacted with RDSO as vendors, they nursed a grudge against it. They just decided to kill RDSO – thinking that since they got a raw deal – they finally eked out their revenge.
The lurking vendor in these ministers just could not understand the institutional role of RDSO. If they got a raw deal, as many do, they forgot that as Ministers they are the ones who select officers to be posted at RDSO – they should have instead created mechanisms to select the very best in integrity, commitment and competence and allowed them to work. How can M/s Goyal & Vaishnaw be so sure that their product was so superior that Indian Railways could not have lived without it? RDSO does have problems like any other unit – problem is in lack of #rotation of supervisors and selection of officers by vendors and their cartels.
And the solution lay at your table Mr Rail-Minister, no one else’s!
RDSO has an unglamorous role of ensuring line safety by working on reliability of products and robustness of maintenance practices. RDSO used to conduct audits which were depended on by all. But posting of RDSO was as manipulated as vigilance under your watch.
Vendors love to have ‘their’ officers in RDSO. #Railwhispers pointed out how your favourite officers hid records while posting CVO at RDSO, a decision which was so flawed and scandalous that a new officer had to be brought in. But people who orchestrated this continue in Rail Bhawan and saw elevation as DRM – despite you being the party to this decision.
Four Tier Safety Structure Disrupted
So we just explained how the primary level of safety has been disrupted by Khan Market Gang (#KMG) patronised by you, Mr Rail-Minister. Secondary level of divisional supervision as brought above is off the balance. Tertiary level is with officers of Level 15 and above – and we saw that is being disrupted by the bogey of IRMS.
Now let us look at the quaternary level. Who are the people you brought in Mr Rail-Minister? People like Nakra got their orders cancelled just after the then CRB retired and were brought in Rail Bhawan overturning Mr Goyal’s policy of trimming rail bhawan. Same with K P Yadav who was JDPG to Lalu Yadav. Support given to officers like Shamsi sent a message that Hon’ble PM’s exhortation of transparent working will not apply in railways.
What value do such officers bring in for Rail-Safety? By publicly rewarding these officers you dealt a death blow to the morale of field officers. Today, many PCSO are people who could not be posted elsewhere, they are disgruntled leaders, nursing grudges for being ‘sidelined’.
We had been alerting the railway leadership on dangers of their style of working. Transformation in hands of #Advisor has, as we brought out, fiscally dealt body blow to the railways and has disrupted primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary tiers of safety.
Today, Rail-Safety is not left with any feet to stand on.
Delivering safety is an integrated process which needs to be seen as a whole, not in parts, something which #KMG can not do.
#KMG not just killed careers and finances of railways, it killed over 288 innocents and injured a thousand more. Which is a nothing but mere statistic for #KMG (ignoring the empathy and sensitivity where many a families would have been wiped out during peak vacation period for commoners)
Should you resign Mr Rail-Minister?
In a technically complex system with a large human interface, things will surely sometimes go wrong. It is understandable. But inability to correct course despite being alerted repeatedly and regularly, sorry to say, does show certain incapacity.
Hon’ble PM has allocated record funds to the railways – perhaps for the first time since 1853, that such focused attention has been given to Railways. But under you, extortionists have been given shelter, you protected even those who issued illegal orders, you extended protection to those who were singled out to be moved out of Delhi – instead you rewarded them, you continue protecting those senior officers who are doing business with Indian Railway, you are insistent on overspending heavily for same services. We see this as an evil influence of #KMG which sadly you failed to shake out from. Maybe you should do a puja/yagya or tantra-mantra to break the evil spell.
About 300 have died and many, amongst a thousand injured, are still critical. Blood flows in the corridors of your gleamy #Sheeshmahal on the 3rd Floor of Rail Bhawan.
We have brought out that in the name of transformation, the 3rd Floor of Rail Bhawan has disrupted all four levels of systems ensuring safety.
Running one of the world’s largest rail-networks is a serious business. It needs credible leadership open to feedback and corrective measures.
It is time that you choose……
Note: This article is based on inputs of recently retired senior officers. AI was used to moderate and give uniform style. We carefully ensured that no facts are ‘created’ in the process.
Compiled by: Suresh Tripathi