Sadananda Gowda flouts govt order on staff strength Has 66 against sanctioned strength of 15
Prime minister Narendra Modi's dictum of 'maximum governance, minimum government' has been derailed in Rail Bhavan.
Documents accessed by dna show that within three months of taking charge, railway minister Sadananda Gowda has created 89 posts over and above the sanctioned 136. In the process, he trashed his own order not to transfer "elements" from zonal railways to the ministry.
Gowda also chose to disregard a May 26 government circular specifying the number of personal staff of a cabinet minister at 15. Against this strength, Gowda has 66 – i.e. 51 more. His predecessor, Mallikarjuna Kharge, too, ran an over-sized bogey along with his ministers of state.
Current minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha has a permitted personal staff strength of 13, but has 50.
Together, Gowda and Sinha have 116 personal staff. Most of them are group C and D staff, but those at higher levels were transferred to Delhi from zonal railways as informal staff to assist Gowda and Sinha. The prime minister has a personal staff strength of 64.
Transfers and postings have added to the work load, as each officer requires a private secretary or personal assistant, an office peon, a bungalow peon, a room in Rail Bhavan, a vehicle and accommodation.
According to documents with dna, the 89 posts Gowda created are in the grades of additional secretary, joint secretary, directors and deputy secretaries in the railway board. He did this by operating posts created for zonal railways. These posts are being called 'temporary revenue' posts.
So who are these people? "They are officers who have an interest in being posted in Delhi. When the transfer happens with just a nod from the minister, the officer enjoys his office at the pleasure of the minister. Can he then dare say 'no' to any proposal of the minister?" said a source.
These transfers/postings were done after Gowda himself prohibited the creation of fresh posts and transfers with immediate effect on June 17. He wrote to members of the railway board, telling them to stop "bringing elements from one place to another."
This order came after the railway board said on June 2 that it will surrender all "elements" transferred to railway board from zonal railways. But no action was taken. On the contrary, posts were regularly transferred from zonal railways to railway board.
Officers who were transferred to make a ring around Gowda include personal secretary V Ponnuraj, OSD B N Krishnaiah, Dr Arvind Gupta, Gowda's adviser with the rank of additional secretary; joint secretary J Srinivas, who used to be a favourite of Kharge, and for whom the post of executive director/accounting reforms in the railway board was made operative by Gowda.
Then there is Anwar Hussain Shaik, for whom the post of director/PPP/Railway Board was made operative. Yet another is N Ramesh, who is director (public grievances) and for whom the post of south western railway (Bangalore) was "transferred" to Delhi. All posts, except those of PS and OSD, exceed the permissible limit.
The personal staff for minister of state Manoj Sinha include personal secretary Nitishwar Kumar, special officer RVPS Murthy and RK Verma, joint secretary-level officer for whom a post of "Railway" has been made operative and Dr Madhukar Sinha, also a joint secretary-level officer, for whom a post from the eastern railway was made operative.
Some posts were created out of thin air. The one for Madhukar Sinha, who was transferred from East Central Railway and posted as ED (Innovations). Anwar Hussain Shaik is Director/New Initiatives.
Rules say that if any post in a zonal railway outlives its requirement, it must be surrendered. New posts can be created only with the consent of the finance ministry. For, those in the ranks of additional secretary and joint secretary, the Union cabinet and committee of secretaries have to give approval.
Additional director-general (public relations, ministry of railways) Anil Kumar Saxena told dna he was not aware of Gowda's June 17 letter. On the finance ministry not being kept in the loop, he said that the board had a member (finance) who would be aware of the posts created by the ministry.
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