Railways retires 19 officials in a day; 75 opted for VRS over last 11 months

New Delhi: The Railways on Wednesday retired 19 of its officials who had adverse vigilance reports, effecting a rule under which a government employee can be forced to retire after being served a minimum of three month’s notice or a similar period’s pay, official sources said.
This is in addition to 75 officials who were forced to take VRS over the last 11 months, which included senior officials like general managers and secretaries, the sources added.
The move is part of the Union government’s efforts to weed out non-performers, they said.
The 19 people who have been retired now include four officials each from the electrical and signalling services, three each from medical and civil, two from personnel and one each from stores, traffic and mechanical, the sources indicated.
They are from Railway undertakings such as the Western Railway, Central Railway, Eastern Railway, Northern Central Railway, Northern Railway, Sand Coach Factory Kapurthala, Modern Coach Factory-Rae Bareli, Diesel Loco Motive Works-Varanasi, RDSO-Lucknow etc.
Under the provisions relating to pre-mature retirement in the Fundamental Rules (FR) and the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, the appropriate authority has the absolute right to retire a government servant under FR 56(j), FR 56(l) or Rule 48 (1)(b) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 as the case may be, if it is necessary to do so in public interest.
However, the 75 officials who put in their papers and decided to opt for VRS are those who have been denied promotion or sent on leave or circumstances have been created to force them to opt for retirement.
Under the VRS scheme, an employee is paid a salary equivalent to two months’ pay for every year of service left. This benefit is not available in compulsory retirement.
In what is likely to be the largest such group to have opted for VRS, the process started in July last year, when nine officials put in their papers, followed by six in August, four more in September, seven in October, nine in November, six more in December, 11 in January, seven in February, eight in March, five in April and three this month. Two more are expected to do so next month, the sources said.
The senior-most official to take VRS was Railway Board Member (Traction and Rolling Stock) Rahul Jain, whose application was approved in January this year.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, after he took office last year, had warned slackers that they would be shown the door if they do not perform. In one of his meetings, he had warned officials to either “preform or perish”.
—PTI

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