NEW DELHI: The careers of over 1,500 Group B Railways officers are in disarray due to over four-year delay in promotions, associations representing them have said and contended this has led to "humiliation" and is "demoralising".
Group B officers are considered the backbone of rail operations as they are involved in the repair-maintenance of rolling stock, fixing and monitoring of railway track, signal system and other operational aspects of the national transporter.
Over the past few months, Railway associations have made multiple submissions to the Railway Board over the issue and have highlighted how the delay in promotions since 2016 had not only hampered the career progression of these officers but has also led to humiliation.
"Some Group-B officers are working in junior scale for more than 14 years due to delay of DPCs (Departmental Promotion Committee) and due to abolished ad-hoc promotion in Senior Scale. Many Group-B Officers have retired/going to retire in the junior scale itself.
The stagnation due to the delay of DPC is causing humiliation and is demoralising. To get rid of this pathetic situation, the only solution is to conduct DPC on time," wrote Indian Railways Promotee Officers' Federation (IRPOF) to the Railway Board Chairman and CEO Suneet Sharma in October.
It stated that the present state of affairs is a "great dampener of self-esteem and self-actualisation which are considered to be the most essential needs of any human being in his professional endeavour".
In a letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the association blamed the "slackness/poor involvement" of Zonal Railways and production units in not providing data for DPCs in time according to the calendar provided by the Department of Personnel and Training for convening timely DPCs which, they alleged, has never been adhered to.
"Instructions were given to make the panels for promotions available prior to the actual occurrence of vacancies. It has also been said in those circulars to fix the responsibility of the officials concerned for the delay in case of non-compliance of preparations of DPCs as per DOPT calendar," the letter stated.
BJP MP from Mumbai, Gopal Shetty, in a letter to Jitendra Singh, MoS, Ministry of Personnel and Training, had raised the issue of the "around 1500 Group B officers affected due to the delay in conducting DPCs".
Senior officials said the mood of these officers over the issue can have a direct impact on rail safety and train operations.
The associations have also highlighted that while promotions were granted to the Group B Indian Railway Personnel Service last year, the same was delayed for four years for seven other departments, including mechanical engineering, traffic, civil engineering, Signal and Telecom Engineer and electrical engineering.
"DPC of IRPS (Indian Railway Personnel Service) was convened in June 2021 and that minutes were advised to the Board by UPSC. DPC for IRTS (Indian Railway Traffic Service) for 2018 and 2019 was done in July 2021, but DPC notification was not advised to the Board. It is relevant to point out that DPC for IRSME (Indian Railway Service for Mechanical Engineering) for 2016-17 which was scheduled for July 2021 was postponed for 29.7.2021 but subsequently postponed," the letter stated.
It sid, that while the papers of IRPS and IRTS for 2018-2019 were submitted at the same time, the reasons for not notifying the Traffic DPC is not understood or justified.
The Railway Board has now called for a meeting with representatives of the IRPOF on November 25.