22 Railway officers compulsorily retired

Twenty-two Indian Railway officers — from various railway services — have been “compulsorily retired”. This is likely to be a case of maximum compulsory retirements in one year, with an official terming the move as “unprecedented”.

These ‘compulsorily retired’ officers are from across railways services — Indian Railway Accounts Service, Personnel Service, Service of Engineers (Civil Engineers), Traffic Service, Engineers, Signal Engineers, Electrical Engineers and Stores Service.

Government norms for such compulsory retirement — which includes inefficiency, ineffectiveness, doubtful integrity or conduct that does not suit a railway servant — have existed for long but are seldom used. The government also stipulates that these norms have to be used impartially and not arbitrarily.

In 2016-17, a total of 1,824 railway officers were reviewed and from this lot, four officers were made to retire before they reached the superannuation.

In the latest round of action, the officials are from various railway zones and production units. In 2019-20, the internal committee for review of services considered officials who crossed 50 years but have over one year left for retirement, according to a railway note.

This year, about 1,410 Railway officers were reviewed, and 22 officers were recommended for retirement. These recommendations were based on meetings with officials from vigilance team.

Earlier this year, officers from income tax and customs had been compulsorily retired.

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