Indian Railways Forces 32 Officers To Retire Prematurely: Here’s The Shocking Reason Why

32 officers of the Indian railways have been retired by the Indian Railways, citing reasons of public interest and other factors. All these officers are above the age of 50, and this is a very rare case. 

The government of India has already revived the plan of ‘compulsory retirement’ for all central employees, which was met by huge protests from the unions. 

It was very recent when Indian railways decided that they would review the performances of the employees.

Read on for the full story!

Indian Railways Enforces Compulsory Retirement On 32 Employees Above 50 Years Of Age

The Indian Railways had previously announced that they will be carrying out performance reviews of people who have crossed the age of 50. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had asked all the zones of the Indian Railways to identify inefficient employees who can be sacked. 

The Indian Railways released a statement that stated that the reasons behind this forced retirement of employees – inefficiency, doubtful integrity and conduct unbecoming of a railway servant as part of a periodic review. 

During the performance appraisal conducted by the Indian Railways, about 1780 employees of various grades were identified, and 32 of them were asked to quit citing public interest. They were gazetted officers, and belonged to various services including the Railway Administrative Services, Personnel Service, Traffic Services, Account Service, Mechanical Services. 

Indian Railways To Review Employees Based On Their Performance 

The government has started doing performance reviews of employees who have crossed 50 years of age. In 2016 – 2017, the Indian Railways had also asked 4 officers to retire citing reasons of poor performance. 

The Modi-led government had previously announced that employees above the age of 50 years of age, or who have completed 30 years of service should be retired. The government has revived premature retirement plans for these employees and that their performance should be reviewed regularly. 

D Manoharan, General Secretary of Southern Railway Employees Union, said, “The government has issued the order for the second time. They are serious about implementing it. In our view, the government wants to reduce the workforce of the central government slowly and wants to privatize the central government sectors.”

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had issued an order that all the government establishments should present detailed reports of how many employees were reviewed, and to identify the employees who were recommended for premature retirement, and those would be given three month notices to retire from service.