JOIN USGoing by the Debroy Committee recommendations on rationalising manpower, Indian Railways would hire an international consultancy firm to assess its staff strength.
It invited bids from Ernst & Young, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Deloitte and KPMG. While one of the agencies would assess requirements in the gazetted category, a second agency would analyse the non- gazetted category.
Answering a query on the Debroy Committee recommendations, member (staff), Railway Board Pradip Kumar said the panel has suggested rationalisation and restructuring railway staff.
While the panel’s report is still under scrutiny, Kumar said assessing the staff has already been taken up. The senior railway official, however, dismissed the committee’s recommendation that railways should concentrate on its core function of running trains and abandon peripheral responsibilities of managing hospitals and schools.
“There has to be a system in place to keep the railways and its employees in good health,” he said, rejecting the notion that maintaining overall health of its staff is contrary to the railway’s core responsibility.