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Of sixteen railway zones, five have AGMs from a single cadre

By IndianMandarins- 01 Jul 2020
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This is not something very new and unusual for Indian Railway Services officers to blame and to be blamed for liking towards a particular cadre. Following the posting of two IRSEE cadre officers as Additional GM, senior Railways officials started blaming the Board for favouritism. On June 24, 2020, Navin Gulati (IRSEE) has been posted as AGM in Northern Railway and Gopinath Mallaya (IRSEE) in Southern Railway.

These two postings appear to have provided enough fodder to officers belonging to other cadres for matching the dots, drawing pattern and substantiating their own view. It is said that including Gulati and Mallaya, five AGMs were from a single cadre i.e. IRSEE. Earlier Pramod Kumar (IRSEE) was made AGM in South East Central Railway, Radhey Raman in Northeast Frontier Railway and BP Singh in South Central Railway.

Reportedly, of sixteen railway zones, five AGMs are from a single cadre i.e. IRSEE. Reportedly, many of them are not yet in the HAG+ and have been posted in clear oversight of more senior officers of other cadres. There are many who claim it to be totally disproportionate with the strength of the IRSEE cadre vis-a-vis the total strength of eligible officers in other cadres.

Even earlier, many of key posts in Railway Board were awarded to IRSEE officers. Two important establishment posts of Executive Director (Gazetted) and Joint Secretary (Confidential) have been manned by a single IRSEE officer. These posts were exclusively occupied by either the RBSS or IRPS officers. Likewise, the lucrative post of Secretary, Railway Sports Control Board, which was earlier a preserve of IRPS has been given to an IRSEE officer.

It is said that two Additional Member level ex-cadre posts of Additional Member Planning and Addition Member Transformation is occupied by a single IRSEE officer Dinesh Kumar who also holds a third AM level post of AM Electrification.

This grabbing of key ex-cadre posts by the IRSEE might have led to some heartburn and discontent in the other cadres but this is not new to Railways. They see it as a clear case of favouritism by the Chairman Railway Board, who is from the IRSEE cadre himself. But the blame-game is not new to Railways. When A K Mital (IRSS:1976) was Chairman Railway Board officers belonging to other cadres blamed the Board for being partial towards IRSS cadre.

In the past, various CRBs were often labelled for alleged favouritism towards their own cadres. Still, fair play and transparency in the handling of establishment matters in the Railway Ministry is something which may be attained through Union Government’s approved move of the merger of eight Group A service cadres of the Railways into one unified central service i.e. Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) which may take some more time to be executed completely.

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