Officers will have to learn groundworks for better coordination with ground staff: Railway minister

“Our system is such that on one side there are employees and on the other side there are officers. There are many countries where employees start from the ground level and reach the top level. Where people start as Technicians and later become members (of Railway Board). They start as Platform Manager and later become General Manager. They start as a fitter in a workshop and retire as a workshop head. Its advantage is that they are aware of what is happening at Ground Zero and even after reaching up in the hierarchy, they are not cut-off from the ground,” said Vaishnaw after conferring 69th Ati Vishisht Rail Seva Puraskar to 101 Railway officials and 22 Shields to best performing Zones in different categories at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.

“…(in our case) the system is different. Here one enters Group A and goes up to member or chairman level. On the other hand, employees enter from level-1 to 6 and go up to level-11. There is a need to bring a big change in the training of officers and employees in this system. A lot of thinking has been done on this and its implementation will happen this year. All the officers will be given training on how to work on the ground. That means if there is a PHOD (Principal Head of Department), he/she will go to the workshop and learn the work of welding, fitter etc. Similarly, ground level employees will come to the headquarters and see how work is done here, how policies are made,” said the Minister.

Ashwini Vaishnaw said that this is necessary because both sides should understand what problems they face in each other’s work and this will help in creating a better harmony between the two.

“We will tie-up with the industry for major disciplines like Welding, Fitting etc., so that the quality of work improves. Small experiments have been done in this regard, now that have to be institutionalised. I realised this after listening to the workers during the field visit and many changes have been brought in the policy. Many such suggestions are received from the ground which would probably never come from the Railway Board. Therefore, officers will have to deepen their connection with the technicians and the technicians’ understanding of the policy,” said Vaishnaw.

The Minister of Railways also called for three times more focus on safety, maintenance, quality and training and said that from next year there will be a special reward for railway zones achieving zero derailments and no awards to the zone with the worst derailment/accident records.

“A quality shield will be given to those units which are best in quality awareness and adopting quality practices. And there will be a significant punishment for those who are worse. Same will be for Maintenance, Safety also,” said the Minister of Railways.