The merger of 3 non-tech & 5 tech railway services into a single IRMS has created much discontent among officials

The merger a ‘unilateral’ decision taken without proper representation

How can the two services be put at par when the exams are totally different and so is the nature of their work?

How can CRB, who has not worked continuouslly in Railways, claim that traffic officers do nothing?

The merger of three non-technical and five technical services into a single Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) has created much discontent among non-technical officials, who are now flooding the Prime Minister, Cabinet Secretary, Railway Minister, Chairman Railway Board and Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) with representations opposing the decision.

A three-hour-long video conference by the Chairman, Railway Board (CRB) on Thursday, 27 December in the matter has reportedly failed to allay fears and restore the confidence of officers from Traffic, Personnel and Accounts services over the recently announced merger, and instead left many seething.

Identical letters, written on postcards, have described the merger a ‘unilatera’ decision taken without proper representation from non-technical railway officers inducted through civil services and urged the government to give them an option to change their services if the merger was to continue. Around 10,000 post cards have been sent from different parts of the country, officers have claimed.

“How can CRB who has not worked in Railways properly and continuouslly, claim that traffic officers do nothing? That they don’t maintain or nurture any assets. That they don’t footplate or visit accident sites, they don’t do inspections, etc. It is very partisan and demotivating,” said an official after attending the video conference. This claim of the CRB itself prove that he had no any experience to run Railways, he said.

Minister for Railways, Piyush Goyal, while announcing the merger of the eight services, had called the decision “unanimous”, taken with overwhelming support from all technical officers during a two day long discussion to work out measures to end “departmentalism” during ‘Parivartan Sanghoshti’, held on 7-8th December.

However, officers have pointed out that the Sanghoshti had 12 teams, each headed by general managers, all of whom were from Engineering Services exam (ESE), with little or no representation from the officers of Traffic, Accounts and Personnel, who together form the managerial and administrative backbone of the organization. They further stated that no minutes of the meeting was issued.

Among the eight services in railways, Accounts, Personnel and Traffic officials are selected through civil service exam (CSE) by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). And Electrical, Civil Engineering, Stores, Mechanical, Signal and Telecom (S&T) officers are selected through Indian engineering service exam (ESE) by same.

With just three GMs out of the total 27 in Indian Railways from UPSC, which has a strength of 2,500, officers have urged that they should be given a right to get absorbed into another civil service.

A senior officer said, “The Bibek Debroy Committee’s report pointed out that a single service is not feasible unless all come from the same background. The recommendation was that there should be two services – one technical and another non-technical, which should be done.”

In their letters, officers pointed out that recruits from UPSC have the acumen for managerial and administrative posts and that “…merging technical and non-technical services will devalue the managerial post, which acts as guidance of public funds for the public good”.

Further, the average age of non-technical officers at entry level via UPSC is 27 years, while those from engineering are between 22-24 years when they come into the service.

“How can the two services be put at par when the exams are totally different and so is the nature of their work? It will greatly affect young officers who have just entered the service, who will work as much to run the system, but will have poor promotional prospects and end up stagnation,” said another senior officer.

The officers in their representation further pointed out that the creation of a unified IRMS was against the principal of natural justice to change the condition of their services against what they were recruited for by UPSC.

A senior official from railway board said, “Once the service rules have been laid down on which the 8 services have been functioning so far, the changes cannot be made to these rules in a way that is detrimental to an officer’s services prospect. We will see how things workout.”

Those in personnel deptt, which has merely 250 direct officers, are mulling over to urge the government to allocate them the second optional service which they had selected during UPSC.

The officers have demanded that a meeting should be called with Railway Minister, Secretary/DoPT and Cabinet Secretary, and all civil service officers of Railways to discuss the pros and cons of the merger. They have also urged that there should be two different services, one technical for engineers and the other non-technical for civil servants.

Input Assistance: The Indian Express