Rot in top railway postings runs deep

The railways cash-for-post scam threatens to open up a Pandora's Box, as records show that promotions have been routinely delayed, while graft charges for "prized postings" have become a routine phenomena. Srinand Jha reports.

The railways cash-for-post scam threatens to open up a Pandora's Box, as records show that promotions have been routinely delayed, while graft charges for "prized postings" have become a routine phenomena.

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ACC guidelines say eligible candidates for posts of members or Chairman, Railway Board (CRB) must fulfill the twin conditions of one year experience as an Open Line (OL), while having a residual tenure of two years.

During Lalu Prasad's tenure as the railways minister (2004-08), RR Bhandari, who had a residual tenure of just nine months, was appointed Member (Mechanical), while RK Rao succeeded him, despite just a two months term as an OL general manager.

RK Singh superseded other eligible officers to become CRB, while RS Varshney became board member despite not fulfilling ACC conditions.

VK Kaul was appointed as Managing Director of the DFCC, but was summarily sacked on corruption charges in 2010.

"Money does change hands for appointments to plum posts", sources alleged.

Mamata Banerjee appointed Vivek Sahai as the CRB in 2010, ignoring the claims of Deepak Krishan. He kept the post of Member (Traffic) vacant for 13 months. Several posts of general managers were also kept vacant for 10 months.

More recently, the post of Member (Engineering) was vacant for two months.

Incumbent Member (Electrical) Kulbhushan also did not fulfill the ACC criteria on the date of his appointment.