The Indian Railway Signal and Telecom Maintainers' Union (IRSTMU) wrote a letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, highlighting favouritism in the promotion in the Railways. IRSTMU alleged that promotion in Railways comes with almost mandatory transfer and favouritism plays a crucial role in it.
A letter dated February 27 underscored 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.
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, IRSTMU general secretary Alok Chandra Prakash said in the letter.
'Only those who are in the good books of seniors get desirable places'
"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 said.
"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," the elaborated.
This will not only introduce transparency in the promotion and transfer but also bring a lot of operational efficiency and respect for work, he added.
"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.
(With PTI inputs)
