Ground Level Feedback – On the Broken Backbone of Indian Railways
Our ‘naive’ MR is totally apathetic and unconcerned about such unjust, horrifying and inequitable scenario prevailing under his nose and rather busy in tom-toming his fictitious achievements, totally oblivious to the plight of superceded senior officers and staff in the field. How can such junior #Minister defy the #PMO so brazenly?
Editorial Comment:
Time and again we gave advise to the HonтАЩble Minister for Railways (#MR) that he must be careful in choosing his #company. We have been giving fact based #feedback to his office and also to his emissaries. However, #damage has been done and all that can be now done is just damage control.
Please read once again: тАЬRoot Cause Analysis of Poor Safety Record of Indian Railways in last 2 yearsтАЭ
#Balasore was 6th such #accident in six months. Five accidents before #Balasore were highlighted by none other than #MemberInfrastructure, #RailwayBoard in his letter to the General Managers of all Zonal Railways in the first week of April. Criticism on #recruitment, on #transfer & #postings, #extortionist #vigilance, #cartelisation of #safety systems, developing cold feet on proven cases of #corruption, #promotion to tainted people, overcrowded trains was capped by cold blooded murder of 300 poor innocent Indians. But the system still talk of proforma action like drives. Systemic improvement now can not happen because All India Delhi Service (#AIDS) and Khan Market Gang (#KMG) grew stronger. Also, institution like #RDSO which assures #Safety by technical inputs is manned by the тАШchosen fewтАЩ who are either complicit or are pusillanimous. #RailwayBoard is choking with poison ivy which finds sustenance in the 3rd-Floor of #RailBhawan.
It appears that MR has been given opium of technology advancement, station development by the #KMG. This opium has stopped him from asking questions on contract structures, killing of billion dollar diesel loco component industry in India, idling thousands of good working diesel locos to accommodate #Marowrah Locomotives. It is not out of place to mention that HonтАЩble MR served as #CEO of the company which runs #Marowrah and rasies the bills on #IndianRailway.
Also, questions were not asked by him when cost of #Madhepura locomotive climbed above тВ╣32 crore as against тВ╣20 crore of available alternatives which deliver 30% more force to pull #Freight trains-the key earning parameter for which a #locomotive is bought. Further, questions have been raised on advisability of spending тВ╣100 crore extra per train for a 130-160 kmph service-instead of spending more on cost effective options already available with Indian Railways (#IR) in which it has already invested.
Wholesale killing of 300 people has been the tipping point. Officers, both serving and retired are now very vocal – they say, they refuse to be party to these killings by the system which they attribute to the #TeesriManzil. Continuation of #KMG on 3rd Floor has made them very angry, a condition which is not at all good for #safety sensitive organisation like #railways. Presented below is a feedback from one such very senior officer retired at the apex of the organisation recently.
Its strong language reflects the mood of the railway officers who currently serve at the Zonal HQ and at Rail Bhawan. These officers have always been politically neutral and their integrity is much above the combined #integrity of the 3rd Floor of Rail Bhawan, which means the staff and officers serving railways trust them more. Losing their confidence has been the MinisterтАЩs biggest personal loss. HonтАЩble MR Ashwini Vaishnaw has been a promising person, perhaps struggling to find his identity as a #bureaucrat, #businessman, #corporate leader or a #politician. We have always meant good for him, but suppressing the ground level feedback will always do more harm.
Only few months remain for 2024 #elections. Still we learn from the sources that some big #tenders are still being pushed. We advise #RailwayBoard and #Minister to stay away from the practice of entering contracts which have ramifications for 35-45 years. Madhepura prices should have been sobering lesson.
Read the ground level feedback !
How an arrogant, overrated, whimsical and immature autocrat has singlehandedly decimated and grounded the once glorious Indian Railways?
In just 2 years, #IndianRailways has nosedived from a robust organization into a fledgling, shaky, confused, vulnerable and fragile organization, thanks to the disastrous and destructive combination of Czar like megalomaniac, autocratic and whimsical bureaucrat Minister and his Rasputin like crooked, wicked, corrupt, cruel and crafty #Adviser aka #Tenderman.
Indian Railway and its employees have been crying рддреНрд░рд╛рд╣рд┐-рддреНрд░рд╛рд╣рд┐ for long now, but its savage boss is totally blinded by the unprecedented power he wields over IR, which is being used solely to benefit the few vendors at the behest of #tenderman, at the severe detriment and cost of IR’s #safety. Hardworking and 24×7 dedicated Railway officers and staff are being humiliated, superseded, insulted and threatened with #VRS & #56J at the drop of the hat, thus turning them into a demotivated and demoralised lot, whereas an extra-constitutional authority sitting in the garb of #Adviser to #MR but actually acting at the behest of powerful #vendor lobbies, is controlling the IR and MR like a puppet master. Huge public funds being allotted to Ministry of Railways by Finance Ministry for #infrastructure #upgradation, #modernisation and #safety enhancement works, are being diverted and squandered mercilessly for precuring the vendor driven, superfluous and fancy items like 200kmph #VandeBharat, station redevelopment, Amrit Bharat Station, Steel fencing etc obvious reasons.
As a result, despite spending about тВ╣4 Lakh Crore capex in last 2 years, IR employees’ morale and its safety record is at its nadir in last 25 years. The arrogance and manipulations of the present dispensation are such that an ugly attempt was made by the #Tenderman to project the cause of #Balasore accident as #sabotage to confuse the hapless public, whereas it was a crystal clear case of human error/staff mistake. There is widespread speculation that an attempt was made by #tenderman to pressurise the #CRS into delaying the #enquiry report indefinitely like #Pokhrayan accident enquiry, but hats off to the #PMO and the no-nonsense, upright and honest #CRS Mr Chowdhary, who submitted the enquiry report within a month of accident, bringing out the precise cause of accident, which foiled the cover up plans of the tenderman.
However, there has been no change in the modus operandi and ways of #tenderman despite such a disastrous accident, as he is busy in fast tracking and concluding the murky procurements before Feb’24. The #PSU #RVNL, who won the bid to manufacture 100 Vande Bharat trains, has been bullied and subjugated into abandoning the contract so that re-tender can be done to award the same work to the benefit of favoured few known for their proximity to the #Tenderman.
Hundreds of representations of Railway officers of 1985, 1986 & 1987 batch for getting Level-16 & 17 of #IRMS, are gathering dust in #Ministry for months together, but the #Ministry is sitting over it blatantly in gross violation of timelines stipulated in the ACC/PM approved procedure for their timely disposal. This is being done at the behest of #tenderman who wants to make 100% sure that his men become the #Chairman and #Member uncontended and unchallenged.
Our ‘naive’ MR is totally apathetic and unconcerned about such unjust, horrifying and inequitable scenario prevailing under his nose and rather busy in tom-toming his fictitious achievements, totally oblivious to the plight of superceded senior officers and staff in the field. How can such junior #Minister defy the #PMO so brazenly?
Entire #InidanRailway is praying the HonтАЩble #PMModi to bring sanity in the #railways, acting against the forces of tyranny, lest they should completely annihilate this glorious organization beyond redemption.
Compiled & Edited by: Suresh Tripathi