Promotion scam: Railway wants inter ministerial consultations

A scam had come to light in two less-known services-- RBSS and RBSCS -- where promotions were being made allegedly without following due procedures

Resurrecting a closed issue, the Railway Board has written to Finance Ministry for "inter ministerial consultations" to resolve the matter of cadre restructuring of one of its secretariat services.

A scam had come to light in two less-known services-- Railway Board Secretariat Service (RBSS) and Railway Board Secretariat Clerical Service (RBSCS)-- where promotions were being made allegedly without following due procedures and bypassing Union Cabinet's jurisdiction.

Terming it as a "serious lapse", the Finance Ministry had written to Railways to "revoke" its decision for promoting these officials through cadre restructuring.

"It is noted that Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and Ministry of Finance (MoF) have pointed out certain anomalies. Corrective action should be taken at the earliest.

"Further promotion based on this cadre restructuring should be carried out after the issue is resolved with the DoPT and MoF," former Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge had said in a file noting citing "adverse coverage in the media" on the matter.

In future, no cadre restructuring should be processed without following the due procedure as pointed out by MoF, he had said.

However, the Railways recently wrote to the Ministry of Finance again seeking implementation of cadre restructuring of RBSS saying it was "expenditure neutral" and it was conducted with the approval of the then Railway Minister.