Govt reduces Railway Board size

The government has cut down the Railway Board size by 25% and transferred 50 senior officers to zones as part of the effective utilisation of man power.

Of the total 200 directors working in the Railway Board in Rail Bhavan, 50 of them have been shifted to various zones on Monday, said an official from the Railway Ministry.

The transferred officers are from across railway cadres— 10 each from IRSE and IRTS, seven from IRAS, six from IRSME, five each from IRSEE and IRSSE, three each from IRSS and IRPS and one from RPF.

Downsizing the Railway Board employees strength is part of the NDA-2 government's first 100 days agenda.

Though plan to cut down the Railway Board size was first mooted in 2000 by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, it was delayed due to strong resistance by the bureaucratic lobby.

When the government found that most of the director level officers doing similar kind of works, it has decided to shift some of them to field posts, said the official.

In 2015, Bibek Debroy committee on Indian Railways had earlier recommended downsizing the staff strength and depute most of them to field works.

Even in the recent meeting of heads of various zones chaired by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, the minister suggested deploying surplus staff to operational works.

He also said that the strength and deployment of peons should be reviewed and only the bare minimum should be deployed.