CHENNAI: As the Southern Railway plans to surrender as many as 3,596 vacant posts in non-safety categories, the move is expected to bring drastic changes in the job nature of the existing staff and also the quality of services rendered to the passengers, owing to shortage of manpower.
Besides, it will also affect the maintenance schedule of coaches and locomotives, as a significant share of jobs still remain vacant, said sources. Surrendering of sanctioned posts would mean that the railways will no longer fill the vacancies through Railway Recruitment Boards, and any demand for additional manpower in the future will have to be met only with the support of ‘temporary staff’.
Welcoming act for private players, say unions
Various railway employees’ unions have dubbed the move as a prelude to privatisation in railways and questioned the rationale behind the reason to surrender the posts that can also be left unfilled if the railways decided to do so. “Until early 2000, for several years, a large number of posts remained vacant and railways never asked to surrender it. Looking at the latest developments, even if not immediately, eventually the move will increase the share of temporary staff, thereby creating a conducive atmosphere for private players to step in and run their trains,” an official from a railway employee union said.
Vacancies: Where, how many
As part of the action plan to cut the administration expenditure due to the Covid-19 lockdown, acting on the order of the Railway Board, Southern railway has assessed the staff strength across zones and identified that a total of 7,192 posts are lying vacant in non-safety categories. From the copy of the assessment report available with Express, 4,683 posts remain vacant in six railway divisions. They are, Carriage and Wagon Works (Perambur), Loco Works (Perambur), Golden Rock Workshop (Ponmalai), Electric Loco Sheds (Arakkonam and Royapuram),
Chief Electrical Workshop Engineer (Perambur), and Signal and Telecommunication Workshop (Podanur). In addition, 2,509 posts remain vacant in various departments in headquarters offices and storage units. Though these posts are in non-safety categories, the coach and locomotive maintenance workshops may fail to meet the annual schedule, subsequently endangering the safety of passengers, added the union members. The number of sanctioned posts in Southern Railway, that has jurisdiction over the States of Tamil Nadu and Kerala stands at 28,923.
“Considering that 50 per cent of the vacant posts are to be surrendered, the sanctioned strength of the railway will drop to 25,327, resulting in an increased number of contract employees. The staff strength of railway employees stood above 40,000 until early 2000s,” said an official source.Each coach maintenance depot prepares the schedules for the upkeep of rolling stocks and gets approval from the railway board 12 months in advance.
The coaches are sent to workshops for Periodic Overhauling (POH) and intermediate overhauling at regular intervals. Given that the existing vacancies in Ponmalai and Perambur workshops already causing a setback, the move to cut the posts will further weaken the workshops as both the units are being upgraded to take up maintenance of LHB coaches, sources pointed out. When contacted, railway officials claimed that the number of posts to be surrendered is yet to be finalised. The railways have been asked to surrender 50 per cent of the vacant posts by July 31.
Not on the safe side?
The number of employees in non-safety categories under the Southern Railway
Sanctioned: 28,923
Actual strength: 21,731
Vacancy: 7,192