Disciplinary Cases Against Railway Employees: Rajya Sabha Q&A on 27.02.2015

* 49.SHRI C. P. NARAYANAN:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

(a) the number of employees in Railways who were kept out of service or suspended as part of disciplinary action during 2014 and the corresponding figures for 2012 and 2013;

(b) whether non-filling of a large number of vacancies and over work have led to strained relations between authorities and employees and increase in disciplinary actions;

(c) whether there is inordinate delay in settling such cases and that approach and action of suspicion has increased strains between authorities and employees; and

(d) whether Government will take steps to introduce a HR policy to improve working condition of employees and ensure safety of commuters?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI SURESH PRABHAKAR PRABHU)

(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 49 BY SHRI C. P. NARAYANAN ANSWERED IN RAJYA SABHA ON 27.02.2015 REGARDING DISCIPLINARY CASES AGAINST RAILWAY EMPLOYEES

(a) The number of employees on Zonal Railways, Production Units, Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Central Organisation For Modernisation of Workshop (COFMOW) and Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE), who were kept under suspension during period 2012, 2013 & 2014, is shown in the table below:

(b) No, Sir. The Authorities and employees on the Indian Railways share harmonious relations and work jointly in the common enterprise of train operations. Disciplinary action is initiated against employees as per Railway Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1968 on objective grounds. Occurrence of vacancies and filling them up is an ongoing process and has no bearing on disciplinary action against employees. 

(c) There are well defined rules and instructions for expeditious disposal of disciplinary cases and constant monitoring is being done by the Ministry as well as top management at Zonal levels to ensure that disciplinary proceedings are concluded in a time bound manner. The employees and authorities share harmonious relationship between them. 

(d) Sound Human Resource Policy, in keeping with the broad framework of Government of India, is in place for Human Resource Management of the Railway employees. The Ministry of Railways is the only Ministry under the Government of India, which has a separate Civil Services Cadre called Indian Railway Personnel Service, which is managing Human Resources and Industrial Relations in Indian Railways. The Human Resource policies are periodically reviewed in keeping with the changing environment, to ensure that the working conditions of employees remain healthy and safe and efficient transportation is provided to the users.