Root Cause Analysis of Poor Safety Record of Indian Railways in last 2 years
Our many Railway experts have brainstormed for days and come out with the salient reasons behind the current pathetic state of poor safety in Indian Railways specially in last 2 years – pls read the para-wise details with careful alert:
1. Entire #RailwayBoard is heavily bogged down and preoccupied in managing the murky business of excessive and unnecessary procurements – such as #VandeBharat of 200 kmph, #Kavach, #Locos etc – by clubbing the Indian Railway’s requirement of next 10 to 35 years, despite everyone knowing well that these procurements are mostly superfluous to the immediate #Safety requirements of #IndianRailways. These procurements are being done like buying firecrackers during Diwali, not for the benefit of #Railways, but at the behest of powerful #vendor lobbies associated with the #tenderman, and have nothing to do with the safety of Indian Railways.
тАЬWhen #Rome was burning, Nero was playing Flute!тАЭ
Scarce public funds and taxpayers’ hard earned money are being squandered mercilessly and mindlessly on these superfluous Procurements rather than spending them on urgent #Safety and #track enhancement works of Indian Railways, which are in the crying need of the funds for track and signal modernisation/ upgradation works, automated defect/ failure detection systems, minimizing human dependance and mechanisation etc.
Since these #Safety works are long drawn, demand diligence and tedious to execute and not lucrative for #vendors and the #tenderman, and the #powers that be, they have no interest in these safety works. The outcome of such a contemptuous, apathetic, looking down upon, negligent and indifferent attitude towards #safety works specially in last 2 years coupled with thoroughly misplaced and distorted priorities of top brass, is manifested in mega-disasters like Balasore.
Not only the scarce public funds, but the majority time of Board Members and #RailwayMinister is getting wasted in pushing these fancy and superfluous procurements, instead of discussing and resolving the chronic safety issues and channeling the investment into safety works.
2. The #vacancies at field level specially safety related supervisors/staff of #Engineering, #Mechanical, #Signalling & #Telecommunications and #Operating departments have not been filled up deliberately for the last 4 years by stalling the #RRB indents, and suddenly #Board has now woken up from its deep slumber and trying to fill up all vacancies in a single year, but the new recruits will take 3 to 4 years in getting ready for the field postings. This deferment is the result of total apathy and non-understanding of the safety requirements of Indian Railways. The direct outcome of shortage of safety staff in the field, is resorting to shortcuts by overburdened staff, which leads to #Balasore type of disasters. The #Safety_Directorate has no culture or orientation for monitoring the safety staff vacancies, safety enhancement works and granting of maintenance Blocks, rather they are full time busy in postmortem of accidents, fault finding, foreign trips, meaningless and routine safety drives, and baying for the blood of 24×7 workers and safety staff, by punishing them left and right.
3. Due to ill-conceived #IRMS, there was no recruitment of Group ‘A’ officers for two years for 500 posts at #JuniorScale (JS) level, out of which, 400 are crucial safety/operation related posts at cutting edge level. Had these officers been recruited as per earlier system, the Indian Railways would have got 500 trained Group тАШAтАЩ officers to man the crucial safety posts at grass-root level, but due to hideous mess called #IRMS created by Ministry of Railways, the Railways are staring at a huge safety risk due to this huge vacancies in safety related posts at JS level. However, Railway Minister and his cronies are blissfully unaware of this glaring risk, and knows only one solution for all the ills of Railways – sacking, admonishing, bullying and demoralising the hardworking field officers and staff all the time, as per the advice of his blue eyed #tenderman.
тАЬQuestion is that of Credibility Mr RailMinister-Please donтАЩt Jump the Gun!тАЭ
4. Another major blow caused to the #Safety in last 2 years is the blatant bullying, terrorising and sidelining of the GMs and PHODs in the #ZonalRailways and AMs/Board Members in the Railway Board, who are continuously hounded, scolded and threatened by #Minister with sacking under 56J for minor issues and non-issues, whereas the #IAS Secretaries and Joint Secretaries in other Ministries headed by the same Minster, are handled with extra respect and pampered by Minister and treated as his seniors, despite them having no 24×7 responsibility. Such is the rudeness, ill- mannerism and contempt displayed for senior Railway officers in the public forums that they feel totally demoralised and frustrated and have given up working and waiting for their retirement. This modus operandi is the deliberate strategy of the current dispensation to bully all senior officers into total submission so that they will silently cow down and sign their ill-conceived and whimsical orders and #procurement decisions without questioning. While the Railway Minister always sermonises all Railway Officers to maintain integrity, he has totally turned a blind eye to the dubious and shady working of his own #Advisor.
5. Another major reason for complete demoralisation of the top brass of Indian Railways and the field staff as well as huge resentment across cadres is the brazen manipulation by #KMG Mafia headed by #tenderman in the new process of selection and postings of GMs and Board Members, by way of thoroughly manipulating and controlling the #360_degree reviews and the #DPC minutes. How is it possible that in the entire 84, 85 & 86 batches of #IRSME, #IRSEE & #IRSS, comprising almost 300 eligible #HAG Officers, the 360 degree so-called expert panel and DPC could find only one person fit for becoming Board Member, who became #MTRS within a month of becoming #GM and will soon become CRB? Just because he is the blue eyed, obedient and submissive boy of the #tenderman, and doesn’t hesitate to blindly sign the #procurement orders worth thousands of crore as per the wish of #tenderman.
тАЬIt seems that the Government and especially Ministry of Railways have learned nothing from Balasore!тАЭ
This brazenness and naked disregard of the entire system, laying of whimsical new norms applicable only in Indian Railways and not in any other Ministry or State Governments, has surpassed even the 2G scam and the Coal scam, besides seriously jeopardizing the #Safety of #IndianRailways, as non-DRMs are being made GM for 1 month, 2 month, 6-7 months. Is Indian Railways a serious business or a child’s play, which #Minister for Railways and #Tenderman are playing with so casually and contemptuously, purely to satisfy their bloated and inflated egos?
There is no transparency in the nomination of experts for 360 degree panels, its modus operandi and #SOP, methodology for picking up the names of the officers for receiving the feedback of applicants etc. The names of the officers giving the feedback about applicants are chosen/handpicked by the #tenderman through the #Establishment_Officer (his staunchest henchman) and this way #tenderman can manage to get anybody ‘recommended’ or ‘not-recommended’ by the expert panel, and our ‘naive’ Minister is living under great illusion that it is the most fair and transparent system?
Are you living in the fool’s paradise or were you born on planet Mars? If the expert panel honestly does the 360 degree review of high #EQ, #KMG members like #tenderman, #EO, #UmeshBalonda, #JitendraSingh etc, then all of them are likely to get hardly 10-20 points out of 100, but the #Tenderman has arrogated the powers of #ACC by deciding who will become #GM, #BoardMember and #CRB, and #Minister is just blindly signing on the unsigned decisions of the #tenderman! Thus Indian Railways has become a gaming sanctuary and a toy for #KMG & #Minister, for enjoyment and personal glorification, instead of delivering the public service and #Safety to hapless passengers.
6. Another major reason for poor #Safety of Indian Railways in last 2 years is the extreme Moh (рдореЛрд╣-blind attachment) of #Minister for his blue-eyed and so-called high EQ #tenderman, for unknown and mysterious reasons. Despite #tenderman being the most hated and controversial figure in Indian Railways, the #Minister has been totally blinded by the evil spell of #KMG Mafia head aka #Tenderman, due to which the #Minister has been totally cut off from the field level realities and sane voices.
The #tenderman who has little or no knowledge of #Railway working except the #Locosheds and manipulation of procurements, is the sole #advisor and eyes/ears of #Minister on all the important Railway issues of #Infrastructure, #Tenders/#Contracts, #Signalling, #RollingStock, #Personnel, #Finance, #Operations, #Commercial & #Administration, and #tenderman blatantly overrides the sane advice/views of Board Members, left and right.
How can an extra-constitutional authority is dictating terms to entire #Ministry?? Due to this reason, the #Minister for Railways looks down upon the Board Members with extreme contempt as evident from abrupt sacking of the earstwhile #MTRS Rahul Jain solely at the behest of #advisor, beacuse he was not towing advisor’s wrong line.
7. Other major reason is the ill-conceived and dubious system brought by #Minister for Railways of looking after of senior management posts of #GMs and #BoardMembers by much junior officers, that too for several months, as if these posts had no use or purpose, and as if #tenderman alone was enough to control and manage all the Railways and Railway Board. The important safety post of #MemberInfrastructure was unnecessarily kept vacant for months and made to be looked after by AM/PU of the Mechanical department, who doesn’t even know the ‘I’ of #Infrastructure. In these demeaning and autocratic circumstances, the #Safety has been forced to go to the dogs.
8. Another major reason is over-burdening of #Minister with three heavy duty #Ministries, which has led to handing over of the complete control and backseat driving of the #Ministry of Railways to the crooked and malacious #tenderman, who has lapped up all powers of #Minister and has become the single window world view of #Minister, whereas #Tenderman’s whole and sole focus is only on manipulating high value #procurements though he doesn’t sign anywhere and has no any responsibility.
9. One more reason is unnecessary burdening of #DRMs with major #GatiShakti works like #station development etc, which have taken their focus away from #Safety and #Maintenance issues, as DRMs are heavily bogged down by VCs by so many EDs, PEDs, AMs & Board Members, CRB & MR almost everyday, and they are hardly left with time for field visits, night inspections and applying themselves on #Operational/#Safety matters.
The outcome of all above-said issues as well as blatant adhocism, autocratic decision making, dictatorial, arrogant and whimsical attitude, abusive behavior and total contempt and deliberate snubbing of sensible advices and sane voices of domain experts, is the manmade – Ministry-made – mega-disaster called #Balasore, #NewDelhiStation and #Ondagram! To continueтАж
Compiled by: Suresh Tripathi