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Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Indian Railways’ ₹76,242-crore problem

 
The Indian Railway is India’s second largest employer, after the Indian Army, with a total headcount of 13.34 lakh, and a wage bill of ₹76,242 crore in 2014.



 Of the total headcount, 17,100 are officers, including 2,597 doctors.

The 'railway-men', excluding the paramedical and security personnel, total 12.2 lakh. Manpower costs, including pension payouts, constitute over 50 % of the IR’s cost (wages and allowances make up for about 33 %, and pension about 17 %)

The officer community is perplexed because the IR is already conducting studies, called work study, on how many posts in the organisation can be ‘surrendered’ – the organisational speak for rationalising manpower. In the last 10 years, the IR has recommended surrender of 1,35,485 posts, of which 94, 203 were actually surrendered. Where did the remaining posts go? Data from the organisation show that for the fiscal year 2015, 14,420 posts were recommended for surrender. Of this, only 9,038 were surrendered, and the rest of the posts that were proposed, were not agreed to. Till now, 8,927 posts are pending surrender.

When Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted on September 24,2015 that the Indian Railways (IR) has mandated consulting firm Deloitte to formulate a manpower policy for its gazetted officers, it left the officer-community of the public sector behemoth, confused

Deloitte has to study the functioning and the role of the departments at the zonal and divisional levels. By evaluating the scope of outsourcing and technological up gradation, the consulting firm will suggest a more rationalised manpower of officers that will be required to run the Railways. This will determine the future recruitment of officers. Deloitte is expected to submit the report by March 31, 2016. 

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