Railways on track to streamline manpower

Indian Railways has given the mandate of formulating a rational manpower policy for its gazetted officers to consulting firm Deloitte.

Announcing the decision in a tweet, the Railways said that the deadline for submission of the report is March 31, 2016.

The Railways has about 17,000 officers under two categories — Group A (directly recruited through Union Public Service Commission) and Group B (supervisors who rise through the ranks).

Its total headcount is 13.34 lakh and its wage bill in 2013-14 (FY14) stood at ₹76,242 crore, according the Bibek Debroy committee report.

Considered the most sensitive issue, manpower costs, including pension payouts, constitute 50 per cent of the Railways’ cost structure (wages and allowances 33 per cent and pensions 17 per cent).

Deloitte has to study how various departments function at the zonal and divisional levels, besides analysing the roles and responsibilities of each department.

For administrative convenience, the Railways has a Railway Board which is the apex decision-making authority headed by a Chairman and five members who report to the Railway Minister. It is sub-divided into 16 zones headed by a General Manager. Each zone is further spilt into divisions. There are 69 divisions within these 16 zones.

The study would take into account reduction of workload due to activity outsourcing besides technological inputs and advancements made in each department.

With this, an optimum gazetted organisation required for running the Railways, considering the diversity, workload and local conditions, would be estimated.

This will be used to determine optimum intake of officers keeping in mind equitable career progression opportunities and correction of past aberrations.

The Bibek Debroy committee report on restructuring the Indian Railways, unveiled in June 2015, had noted that the Seventh Pay Commission in 2016 would further push up staff and pension costs which would have serious financial implications on the Railways.

Thus the committee observed an urgent need to rationalise the manpower.

Observing that a high degree of ‘departmentalism’ affected the work culture, the Debroy committee suggested two options for entry at the officer level.

One was a unified Railways Service (railway plus MBA plus specialised engineering competencies).

And, two, was merging engineering services into one as Indian Railways Technical Service (railway plus specialised engineering competencies) and non-engineering services as Indian Railways Logistics Service (railway plus MBA competencies) with appropriate job rotation and an objective performance assessment system.

At present, the Railways inducts officers through UPSC’s engineering services examination for its requirements in civil, mechanical, electrical, signal, and telecom and stores departments.

In addition, the UPSC’s civil services examination is used to recruit officers for accounts, personnel, operating and commercial departments.