Indian Railways has all along been considered and given accolades such as arteries of the nation. Life line of the nation and the great mover of development, so much so it has come to become synonym of the term development in real apolitical sense.
Commencing its journey way back in 1853 Indian Railways has been the cradle of various ‘services’ created from time to time. Till recently we have had following services:
1. Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS)
2. Indian Railway Personnel service (IRPS)
3. Indian Railway Traffic service (IRTS)
4. Indian Railway Protection Force (RPF)
The officers for the above Group A services (class-I ) are inducted by UPSC through the prestigious civil services examination, popularly called IAS allied services.
Then there are services where induction is through Indian Engineering Services (IES ) an examination which till recently was conducted uninterrupted annually by UPSC as it was source of manpower not only for Railways but for other important Govt departments also. The services allotted to Railways have been:
1. Indian Railways Service of Engineers (civil) IRSE
2. Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE)
3. Indian Railways service of Signal & Telecom Engineers
4. Indian Railways Stores service (IRSS)
5. Indian Railways service of Mechanical Engineers
There is yet another service of Medical officers. It is through another annual exam called Indian Medical Service conducted by UPSC
The selected officers for all these services are educationally all well qualified tested at various stages for their analytical abilities, approach to problems and possess excellent theoretical knowledge of their subjects/streams. That is not all, there after they are assigned to two years rigorous class room- cum- field training in their specialised streams in the dedicated colleges/Academy
We will resume this thread in a while..let me take you to another useful and indispensable cadre that of Bungalow Peons also called Bungalow Khalasi. When Sahib will go on tour (called On-line in Railway parlance) this BP would take care of your house hold needs right from looking after the kitchen to fetching vegetables and chaperoning ‘Baba log’ to and from schools/music class/swimming sessions etc. These BPs were trust worthy, often known or recommended by someone known and close. So the entire household could be left in their charge. It was not necessary that they had to have any minimum educational qualifications, just being literate was good enough. Those were the good times and officers recruited BPs with bonafide compassion/need. Later the greed took better of officers and we have had innumerable cases where money changed hands, own wards were recruited as BP and/or in ‘You scratch my back; I scratch yours’ officer will recruit brother/son of fellow officer and vice versa. The genuine compassion/need was gone. BP was supposed to be trust worthy growing up with you …our own ‘Ramu Kaka’. However, when greed took over, officers started inducting another and another and yet another depending on minimum number of years required to change BP or on their transfer. Yes your guess is right this money and relative concept came into play more blatantly.
BP engaged by outgoing officer A will refused to work same way for the incoming officer B.
Now you know what ailed the system of BP and how over a period of time the whole concept came to be corrupted and degenerated by none other than Railway officers themselves.
Now back to our ‘services’, you see there were good times and present times. There was time when merit and merit alone was the guarantee of elevations howsoever high the position may be. So there was no fierce politicking for place or position. With growing years our political system came to be so feeble-hearted that babus and netas immediately joined hands and a system of rewarding ‘go getter-flexible babu’ became wide spread. The integrity came to be re-defined that people would often heard saying “..so and so is honest person full of integrity, he will definitely do your work if he has been paid”
Netas sensed this weakness of Babus for a (particular) Place or Post. Babu was ever-ready to crawl when asked to bend. Extension or no extension came to be the great motive force. Similarly, after retirement assignments became sought after and active tenure’s few last years were to be spent working in that ‘desired’ direction.
This led to cut throat and high level politicking for promotions to higher posts. In turn, this left the crack wide open for service loyalty to ridiculous length to inter service rivalry of repulsive kind. It came to be reduced to not an individual being elevated to higher posts but Electrical officer or Mechanical officers getting the larger share of the pie. The perception became departmental rather than merit or lack of it, of the individual.
As the saying goes, in case, one wants to build and create one has to destroy what has been there hitherto. There is no birth without blood. So we have recruitment of all these services discontinued and services have been abolished forthwith.
Now we have what has been termed as IRMS (Indian Railway Management Service) the recruitment of these service has been severed from that of civil services exam. Of course, the first batch is yet to take birth. People are already suspecting miscarriage. There are protagonist who strongly feel that Services should have been classified broadly into two streams Technical and Non Technical, i.e. IRMS (T) IRMS (NT). But then who wants to be called Non Technical.
Although H.R. has been completely done away with in this new scheme of examination. There has been whole lot of mist and haze. Things are not clear as yet unless that is the objective. Let us hope by and by things will shape up. Be prepared to meet whole lot of ‘Alexas’ on the way.
It is a result of years of Indian Railway’s own doing. Now also, unless you ponder and ponder hard, you are bound to perish, unsung and unwept.
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