Railways sacked one 'non-performer or corrupt official' every three days since July 2021: Officials
New Delhi (PTI): The Railways has weeded out one "non-performer or corrupt official" every three days in the past 16 months, officials said, with 139 officers being forced to take voluntary retirement while 38 were removed from service.
Two senior-grade officers were sacked on Wednesday, sources said.
One of them was caught by the CBI with a bribe of Rs 5 lakh in Hyderabad while the other was caught with Rs 3 lakh in Ranchi, they added.
"The (Railways) minister (Ashwini Vaishnaw) is very clear about his missive of 'performance or perish'. Every three days, we have weeded out one corrupt official from the Railways since July 2021," an official said.
The Railways invoked Rule 56(J) of the Department of Personnel and Training service rules that says a government employee can be forced to retire or be dismissed after being served a minimum of three months' notice or pay for a similar period.
The move is part of the Centre's efforts to weed out non-performers. Ashwini Vaishnaw, after he took office as Railways minister in July 2021, has repeatedly warned officials "to take VRS and sit at home" if they did not perform.
Those forced to take voluntary retirement or sacked include officials from the electrical and signalling, medical and civil services and personnel from stores, traffic and mechanical departments.
Under the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), an employee is paid a salary equivalent to two months' pay for every year of service left.
But similar benefits are not available in compulsory retirement.
Under the provisions relating to premature retirement in the Fundamental Rules and the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, the appropriate authority has the absolute right to retire a government servant under FR 56(j), FR 56(l) or Rule 48 (1)(b) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, as the case may be, if it is necessary to do so in public interest.
However, among the 139 are several officials who put in their papers and decided to opt for VRS upon being denied promotion or sent on leave. There are also cases where circumstances were created to force them to opt for retirement, the officials said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
