FACTS BEHIND SHIFTING OF ALL RRB CHAIRMAN

Complete Politicisation of Sensitive Post
of Chairman Railway Recruitment Boards

ARE RRBs ARE GOING TO
BECOME STATE PSCs......?

"It is clear that move of removing the present Chairman of respective R.R.B is a political decision to fulfill hidden agenda which is against with the interest of public at large. Ministry of Railways by appointing new persons as chairman of different R.R.B would make the post lucrative for self by recruiting the incumbents of area wise, caste wise and otherwise not worthy to mention here for their own interest like to enlarge political image for future. In fact, such a whimsical action at the will does not serve the purpose of public but on the contrary defeat the purpose to serve the public without any favoritism in the light of the spirit of various Article of Constitution of India."

Ministry of Railways vide order dated 05.11.09 has removed of all 20 current Chairmen of respective Railway Recruitment Board ( RRB ) which are spread across the entire country. According to Monistry of Railways, this drastic decision has been taken to revamp the recruitment process as these RRBs are mired in controversy and accusation of corruption, irregularities and question paper leak on the allegation of corruption. All 20 chairmen were appointed during Lalu Prasad tenure as Minister for Railways and 18 out of 20 are yet to complete their fixed tenure. However, according to Ministry of Railways this ‘surgical exercise’ to remove all of them who are branded as “Lalu’s men” is not only aimed at streamlining the recruitment process, making it corruption free, but also to get local youth representation in the railways jobs.

That need not to say that Indian Railway is a big industry which provides employment to thousands of people living in various part of India and people across the country even make their aim to join Railways for which they spent their whole time in study and preparation for competitive examinations to be conducted by the Railway Recruitment Boards to recruit persons on different post and for different classes and categories. Being a Ministry of Union of India, there is no constitutional provision to provide preference to the ‘local youths in the matter of jobs in railways and these 20 RRBs are guided by transparent rules in this regard and headed by the Chairmen by serving Railway officers in Senior Administrative grade who according to recruitment rules are the officials of outstanding service records and impeccable integrity. As per the recruitment rules, they have been given a fixed tenure of 3 years.

It would not be acceptable to any man of common approach that none of them is a man of integrity. Ministry of Railways with ill will has tagged all the Chairmen as Corrupt so that present Ministry can place the person of their choice on the post of great importance by replacing the current chairmen of all the R.R.B who were appointed in the regime Ex Cabinet Minister for Railways who are not dancing on the dictated tune of the present Minister to provide as many as jobs to the ‘Local youth of Bengal’ as there is no constitutional provision.

Notification dated 08.04.02 in exercise of power given under Article 309 of the Constitution of India, was issued by the Ministry of Indian Railways in respect of rule for Recruitment rules of Chairmen and other officers of RRB and according to which “Chairman” to be appointed for a deputation term not exceeding 5 years. However the normal tenure of deputation is regulated, to ensure tenure of 3 years.

Clause 6 of the aforesaid statutory recruitment rules further stipulates that if the central government is of the opinion that the rules are to be relaxed for any reason under exceptional circumstances then the same should be recorded and UPSC should be consulted and its approval should be obtained before doing so. But while taking this unprecedented step, UPSC has not been consulted.

18 OUT OF 20 Chairmen who have been removed have either not completed their fixed tenure of 3 years on the post or not have even been found involved in any case of misusing their power for personal gain even then opprobrium has been hurled against them in the media at the behest of interested Ministry to justify illegal and arbitrary order of removal of the current 20 Chairmen. The corrupt & honest both types of officers have been put into one bracket, which is highly unfair and unjustified. They should have taken action guilty and awarded the honest officials. But instead of doing so, they have taken the excuse of corruption to remove all of them.

18 out of all 20 has not completed their fixed tenure and ever since their posting two of the Chairman of RRB Patna & Muzzaffarpur have not issued any notification, not conducted any examination and consequently has not made even a single recruitment in their tenure because of the ban imposed by the Ministry itself on account of the apprehension of agitation against the incumbents of Maharashtra likely to come in state of Bihar for examination. Similarly, Chairman of RRB Bilaspur being new RRB and also on account of ban imposed on fresh notification by the Ministry of Railway has not issued any notification, not conducted any examination and consequently has not made even a single recruitment in his tenure It is quite surprising as to how these 3 present Chairmen of Patna, Muzzaffarpur & Bilaspur could be tagged as “Corrupt” while in fact they have neither conducted any examination nor made any recruitment until date.

That it is quite shocking that there was case of paper leakage in the examination conducted by the Allahabad RRB in the month of December 2008 and by the Ajmer RRB in the month of February 2009 even then Chairman of both the places were allowed to continue till date on what basis would better be explained by the concerned Ministry. Instead of taking timely action to remove the concerned 2 chairmen who were allegedly responsible for in leakage of question paper, Ministry of Railway have branded all chairmen as corrupt and “Lalu’s men” to further the personal agenda of the present Minster for Railways.

That from the above noted facts, it is clear that move of removing the present Chairman of respective RRB is a political decision to fulfill hidden agenda which is against with the interest of public at large. Ministry of Railways by appointing new persons as chairman of different RRB would make the post lucrative for self by recruiting the incumbents of area wise, caste wise and otherwise not worthy to mention here for their own interest like to enlarge political image for future. In fact, such a whimsical action at the will does not serve the purpose of public but on the contrary defeat the purpose to serve the public without any favoritism in the light of the spirit of various Article of Constitution of India.
It is complete politicisation of sensitive post of chairman Railway Recruitment Board.

Some comments of Railway employee on railway website which this amply reflects the mental agony of the officers

Railway Board has changed all the RRB chairmen with a single order and the reason assigned to it is..." Corruption, leakage of Question papers etc". Media has given much publicity to the issue. There is another version that "These chairmen were posted during LALU's time."

Imagine the mental shock to these Officers, despite their honesty, hard work, sincerity, all of them have been labelled as "corrupt”. It is just like declaring all the cabinet ministers are corrupt when we heard the news of Spectrum SCAM levelled against one of the cabinet minister...?

Now imagine the mental agony of these officers... wherever they go. They will be labelled as one among the 20 chairmen who have been transferred unceremoniously, though they were honest to the core and took the challenge of heading RRB when there were no takers. If the sole reason to transfer these officers out of chairman post was based on the notion of corruption as perceived by MR, then what was the collective wisdom of the Board members?

All these members, GMs etc. were also posted during the tenure of Ex-minister, One day if MR have the same notion and there is media to support and give publicity. what will happen to these....members...?

At least there should have been some corrective steps on the part of CRB, MS that the new posting is not on the notion that all the chairmen are corrupt or close to ex-minister but is a regular transfer.

This is high-handedness of the highest order coming from the highest authority in Railways. What is the message?
That all Chairmen were crooks? Or henchmen of the previous minister?
Actually, they are themselves posting handpicked men as EDE/RRB and Chairmen of all RRBs. What are they upto?

Talking about the new EDE/RRB. He seems to be packing RRBs with Stores Officers by cutting down the share of IRPS which is the only specialised service under the Govt of India to deal with matters from recruitment to retirement and even beyond. Does the fellow in his "wisdom" think that recruiting staff is the same as procuring materials?

WITH A SINGLE ORDER 20 RRBS HAVE GOT NEW CHAIRMANS. THIS HAS DONE WITHOUT LOOKING THE FACT THAT MANY OF THEM HAVE NOT COMPLETED THEIR TENURE...? WILL IT HAPPEN FOR DRMs, GMs AND MEMBERS OF RAILWAY BOARD ETC...?

ARE RRBs ARE GOING TO BECOME STATE PSCs...?