Hectic lobbying begins for positions on railway board

The rail budget preparation exercise is facing hiccups because of an unusual reason -- ministry officials have begun hectic lobbying for the posts of chairman and members of the Railway Board, to become vacant in coming months. Srinand Jha reports.

The rail budget preparation exercise is facing hiccups because of an unusual reason — ministry officials have begun hectic lobbying for the posts of chairman and members of the Railway Board, to become vacant in coming months.

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Due to a strange quirk of circumstances, the entire slate of the Railway Board will be wiped clean by June 30.

With the exception of Kulbhushan (member, electrical), all board members, including chairman of the Railway Board (CRB) Vinay Mittal are scheduled to retire by that date.

Member (Engineering) AP Mishra retired on Thursday, while three members (Keshav Chandra, member mechanical; AK Vohra, member staff; and KK Srivastava member traffic) are scheduled to demit office on April 30.

Mittal completes his term on June 30 while finance commissioner Vijaya Kanth does it on June 3.

Among a section of officials, there is some heartburn over the decision to empower the Northern Zone general manager VK Gupta with additional charge as member (engineering).

The ones in the race for the CRB's post are Mahesh Kumar (general manager, western), RS Virdi (general manager, Northeast Frontier) and AK Mittal (general manager South West) — besides Kulbhushan and Gupta.