Cadre Restructuring

Railway Ministry accepts cadre restructuring proposal

T V Sivanandan

  

Mallikarjun Kharge

In an yet another gift to the Railway employees, the Railway Ministry has accepted the long pending recommendations of the cadre restructuring Committee for Group C and D staff which would result in the automatic gradation of the cadre and upward revision of the basic wages of the staff ranging from 10 to 20 per cent.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr Kharge said that more than seven lakh staff of the Railways would be benifitted now. This is a second gift to the employees after the Railways had decided to increase the productivity linked bonus from 73 days to 78 days for 2012-13.

Mr Kharge said that the cadre restructuring would result in the additional expenditure of Rs 1600 crore annually and the increase in the productivity linked bonus would cost an additional Rs 800 crore. This additional burden would be met by upscaling the resource mobilisation.

The Railway Minister said that 30,000 posts out of the total 60,000 vacancies in the Railways were being filled up. The written examinations for recruitment would be held in all the 16 zones in the country and for the first time candidates appearing for the group C posts would be allowed to take one paper in the local language of the state and for Group D posts the candidates would be allowed to answer questions in their regional language.

Mr Kharge said that the Narayanpet Road Railway Station in Yadgir district would be renamed as Saidapur Railway Station and the Union Home Ministry has given its final approval for changing the name of the railway station. The loss of revenue to the Railways due to the Seemandra agitation in Andhra Pradesh and cyclone havoc in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh were being assessed.

To a question, Mr Kharge said that the Railway Board Chairman post which was vacant for the past several months would be filled up with the appointment of the new chairman in a day or two.