Railway Board gives DG (HR) additional charge of Member (Infra); experts criticise ad-hoc measure

New Delhi, Oct 1 (PTI) Railway Board Director General (HR) Naveen Gulati has been given additional charge of Member (Infrastructure), the board said in an order.

“Ministry of Railways have decided that Naveen Gulati, Director General (Human Resources), Railway Board, should be detailed to look after the duties of the post of Member (Infrastructure) Railway Board, in addition to his own, on superannuation of Anil Kumar Khandelwal on September 30 until further orders,” an order from the Railway Board dated September 30 said.

The post of Additional Member (Signal) has also been lying vacant since July 1, 2023 when Rahul Aggarwal, the then AM (Signal) was redesignated as Special DG (S&T), RDSO. Coincidentally, Aggarwal also superannuated on September 30.

“Appointment for top positions is a continuous process and sometimes it gets delayed for various reasons. However, the Railway Board is very particular that it should not impact any safety-related work,” a senior railway official said.

On the other hand, the Indian Railway S&T Maintainers’ Union (IRSTMU) has expressed concern and said that vacancy in top positions hamper operational safety as the Railway Board should have put in place the process to select Khandelwal’s successor well-in time.

A section of safety experts also agreed with IRSTMU’s concern as according to them Signal and Telecom makes a highly critical area from the operational safety point of view.

“Since the day AM (Signal) was redesignated as Special DG (S&T), RDSO, we have been demanding to fill this post but the Board hasn't taken any action in this regard. Now the Member (Infra) under whom, S&T and Engineering Dept come, retired on September 30 and the Railway Board doesn't have a regular replacement,” Alok Chandra Prakash, General Secretary of the Indian Railway S&T Maintainers’ Union (IRSTMU) said.

He added, “Though Naveen Gulati is a dynamic, competent and highly-regarded officer, yet his main focus will be on HR-related issues rather than ongoing as well as upcoming Infra projects including the automatic train protection system Kavach.” K P Arya, who retired as Chief Signal and Telecom Engineer/Information Technology, Northern Railway said normally the process of search for a suitable successor is started quite early but sometimes objections crop up in between which delay the appointment.

“Having said that, I believe that the Ministry should have been well-prepared to take all such challenges in its stride to make regular appointments on time instead of coming up with a stop-gap arrangement,” Arya said.

“When safety is being questioned due to frequent derailments and accident, these top positions cannot remain vacant or run with ad hoc mechanism,” Arya said.

Naveen Kumar, National President, IRSTMU said that stop-gap measures in case of crucial posts not only hampers operational safety but demotivates frontline workers also.

“If DG (HR) has been given extra charge of Member (Infra), it also suggests that it will take a longer time than expected to appoint a new MI. Also if the posting of the head of the safety-related departments is being delayed, then isn't this giving less priority to safety?” Kumar questioned. PTI JP JP NB NB