Favouritism driving railway promotions, employee union tells Vaishnaw

The Indian Railway Signal and Telecom Maintainers' Union (IRSTMU) has alleged that promotion in Railways comes with almost mandatory transfer and favouritism plays a crucial role in it.

The IRSTMU, in a letter dated February 27 and written to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, highlighted these anomalies and suggested that employees should be allowed to give their preferences for vacant positions and decisions should be taken keeping that in mind.

IRSTMU general secretary Alok Chandra Prakash in the letter said though promotion norms are well-settled in railways, a lot of employees refuse to get promoted because they are aware that they would be transferred to far off places and undesirable destinations.

"Only those who are in the good books of their seniors get desirable places while the rest are sent to distant places which disturb and sometimes destroy their family lives," Prakash told PTI.

The IRSTMU believed that the employees who suffer mental and physical pain due to such postings fail to give their 100 per cent to the organisation and often work half-heartedly.

"Hence, I urge the Hon'ble Minister to introduce a system under which employees who are getting promoted should be informed about vacant positions and allowed to give preferences for all such positions," he said.

According to Prakash, this will not only introduce transparency in the promotion and transfer but also bring a lot of operational efficiency and respect for work.

"The Hon'ble Minister is very much concerned about the well-being of railway employees and I hope that he will take these suggestions and the whole issue in a very positive manner. I am hopeful that the senior officials of the Railway Board take an initiative to look into the prevailing prejudices in the system of promotion and transfer," Prakash said.