50,000 to 75,000 posts in railways’ safety depts lying vacant

Railway unions raised concerns about 3,10,000 vacant posts, including in safety, during a meeting with railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw two days before the Balasore rail accident. The ministry of finance had imposed a ban on creating new posts, including in safety, despite railway expansion. Rail unions want more posts to be filled in track maintenance, fitness, senior and junior section engineers, gangmen, and technicians. Railway officials agree that there is tremendous pressure on overall working and their on-ground staff has to cover eight to ten km daily to inspect tracks.

STRAP: Fin ministry also banned creation of new posts despite railway expansion

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Just two days before the tragic Balasore rail accident, a high-level meeting took place in Delhi among railway unions, bureaucrats and union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The issue of vacancies, including in the safety category, across departments was raised by the unions, who pointed out that a mammoth 3,10,000 posts are lying vacant.

The union said the rail authorities had told them that as an austerity measure, the ministry of finance (MoF) had imposed a ban on the creation of new posts, including in the safety category. In fact, a letter dated May 31 submitted by the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) to the railway minister, contested this.

‘The ministry of finance… has imposed a blanket ban on the creation of posts, and the said ban is made applicable to the railways also,’ read the letter. ‘NFIR desires to state that Indian Railways...have built new assets. In order to maintain these assets for effective utilisation, additional manpower is very much needed. Although the ministry of railways has approached the ministry of finance to exempt railways from the ban, the MoF has not agreed to the proposal of the Railway Board.’

“There are around 50,000 to 75,000 vacant posts in the safety category across departments,” Dr M Raghavaiah, general secretary, NFIR, told Hindustan Times. “Filling these posts is of the utmost importance. We demanded that new posts be created for the new rail assets and wanted the finance ministry to exempt the railways from this ban. We had a meeting with the union railway minister on this apart from other issues on May 31. And this tragedy struck two days later.”

The demand to add manpower is justified, given that the railway network is rapidly expanding, with 5,243 km of new rail lines being laid in 2022-23.

The railways, in order to increase line capacity and run more trains on high-density routes, upgraded 530 km with automatic signalling systems. Likewise, in 2022-23, 538 stations were provided with electronic interlocking to enhance safety. Coincidentally, one of the probable causes of the Balasore accident being probed is issues with the signalling and electronic interlocking.

Rail unions want more posts to be filled in the areas of track maintenance, track fitness, senior and junior section engineers, gangmen and technicians in the safety category of various departments. Railway officials, on their part, agree that there is undoubtedly tremendous pressure on overall working and that their on-ground staff has to cover eight to ten km daily to inspect the tracks.

The vacancies have serious implications for the overall functioning and efficiency of the country’s transportation network. “They not only put additional stress on existing employees but also hamper the ability to provide reliable and safe services to passengers,” said Subhash Gupta, president, Rail Yatri Parishad.