Indian Railways Firing 1 Employee Every 3 Days Due To Poor Performance, Corruption

The Railways has sacked one “non-performer or corrupt official” every three days in the past 16 months.

Caught with bribes

139 officers have been forced to take voluntary retirement while 38 were removed from service.

Two senior-grade officers were sacked on Wednesday, with one of them caught by the CBI with a bribe of ? 5 lakh in Hyderabad.

The other was caught with ? 3 lakh in Ranchi.

‘Perform or Perish’

An official said the Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is strict about his approach of ‘performance or perish’.

Along those lines the Railways have weeded out one corrupt official from the Railways since July 2021.

The institution invoked Rule 56(J) of the Department of Personnel and Training service rules according to which a government employee can be forced to retire or be dismissed after being served a minimum of three months’ notice or pay for a similar period.

Repeated warnings to officials

Such efforts are part of the Centre’s attempts to weed out non-performers.

After he took office as Railways minister in July 2021, Vaishnaw has repeatedly warned officials “to take VRS and sit at home” if they did not perform.

The laws invoked

Under the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), an employee is paid a salary equivalent to two months’ pay for every year of service left.

However, similar benefits are not available in compulsory retirement.

Under the provisions relating to premature retirement in the Fundamental Rules and the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, the appropriate authority has the absolute right to retire a government servant under FR 56(j), FR 56(l) or Rule 48 (1)(b) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, as the case may be, if it is necessary to do so in public interest.

Who were affected?

Affected officials include those from the electrical and signalling, medical and civil services and personnel from stores, traffic and mechanical departments.

Among the 139 are several officials who put in their papers and decided to opt for VRS upon being denied promotion or sent on leave.

There are also cases where circumstances were created to force them to opt for retirement, the officials said.