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Top guys to take knock over lapses

Last Updated 23 August 2017, 19:08 IST

In Railway Board chairman A K Mittal’s resignation is implicit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to crack the whip on top, and not junior officials, if any major lapses were found in departments they supervise in the railway ministry.

Even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley alluded to the mood in the government when he said that “accountability is good for government” in response to a poser on the fate of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who offered his resignation, taking moral responsibility for the derailment of Kaifiyat Express on Wednesday.

Modi, who chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday afternoon to take stock of the railway ministry work after the derailment of Utkal Express on August 19, had warned that lapses on the part of senior officials will not be acceptable.

Modi also asked Prabhu, who was present at the meeting, to deal with officials firmly and fix accountability against every lapse.

When the railway ministry sent senior officials on leave after the Utkal Express tragedy, many top officials expressed their unhappiness, saying they should not be held responsible for lapses at the field level.

A K Mittal, a 1976-batch officer of the Indian Railway Stores Service, submitted his resignation to Prabhu on Tuesday evening. Mittal is learnt to have expressed unhappiness over senior ministry officials facing the brunt over the derailment of Utkal Express.

Mittal, who previously headed three major railway zones — Southern Railway, South Central Railway and Central Railway as general manager — felt the action against the officials “affected the morale of the seniors”.

Ministry sources said there was “high drama” after Mittal’s resignation, with board members requesting him to reconsider his decision.

Though three other people — Ghanshyam Singh, (Member, Traction), Mohd Jamshed (Member, Traffic) and Ravindra Gupta (Member, Rolling Stock) — were in contention for the post of the board chairman, the Prime Minister’s Office considered Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani as the best choice.

DH News Service

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(Published 23 August 2017, 19:08 IST)

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