Unifying Cadres May Not Help Railways

Some management posts can be opened up to improve inter-cadre growth. However, unification can hurt workforce morale

- Ajit Mathai/Mohan Menon

The creation of the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) through the unification of eight organised Group ‘A’ Services was approved by the Cabinet recently. Media reports suggest the intent of unification was to end departmentalism, and promote smooth working and ‘rational decisionmaking’. However, before discarding departmentalism, it is necessary to examine whether the ‘baby is also being thrown out with the bathwater’.

For a closer scrutiny, it is necessary to discern and draw a distinction between the ‘operational’ and the ‘business’ realms of the Indian Railways.

The operations

The Indian Railways is a multi-tiered organisation. It is headed by the Railway Board at the apex level, followed by geographically organised 17 Zones and 68 Divisions. The Divisions are further departmentally split into ‘operational units’ such as branch offices, depots, and sheds which, inter alia, include the 7,000 and more railway stations. More or less identical and replicated across the length and breadth of the Railways, these operational units ensures safe passage for a train that runs from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

It is to these units that over 99 per cent of the around 1.3 million employees of the Railways are attached. These units are headed by departmentally aligned frontline officers. It seems only rational that these officers, the leaders, share allegiance to the department that owns their staff, assets, and machines.

In the technocracy that the Railways represents, it is necessary that information stemming from the operational units get systematically used by departmental officers at the three levels of the Railways hierarchy, namely, the Division, Zone and the Railway Board.