Railway Minister Pawan Bansal has offered to resign, after his nephew V. Singla was arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 90 lakh from a conduit of Mahesh Kumar, who took over as Member-Staff, Railway Board four days ago.
Mahesh Kumar has also been arrested by the CBI in Mumbai. According to a statement by CBI, the bribe was allegedly a part-payment for promotion to the post of Member-Electrical, Railway Board.
According to the investigating body, the total bribe demanded was Rs 10 crore. The post, equivalent to that of a secretary rank in the Union Government, involves decision-making on tenders running into crores of rupees.
With pressure mounting on him to resign, Bansal met the Prime Minister, shortly before the Core Group of the Congress party (to which Bansal belongs) met to discuss various issues.
Bansal took charge as Railway Minister just six months ago, emerging as the first Congress Minister to present the Railway Budget after 17 years.
Other vacancies
In fact, this incident also puts a question on the fate of two more Railway Board vacancies that will come up soon, including that of Chairman.
The post of Member (Traffic) is already vacant. The Railway Board, the highest decision-making body of the Railways, consists of seven members.
CBI has also arrested N.R. Manjunath, Managing Director of a Bangalore-based firm, GG Tronics, who was the alleged conduit of Kumar.
GG Tronics manufactures Railway signalling equipment. One Sandip Goyal, who allegedly helped in brokering the deal, has also been arrested.
Earlier in the day, Bansal distanced himself from his nephew.
“Regarding yesterday’s incident involving my sister’s son…. he does not or cannot meddle in my official functions or influence my decisions,” Bansal said in a written statement.
Opposition demand
Opposition Parties, including BJP, demanded the resignation of Bansal, putting further pressure on Congress-led UPA.
The Opposition is already demanding the resignation of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar with regard to his alleged role in influencing CBI in the ongoing coal block allocation scam.
As for the fate of Member-Staff, Railway Board, the Ministry may have to suspend him, if it is intimated by CBI about the Member’s arrest for over 24 hours. After that, the Ministry can take a call only after it gets a report from CBI on the issue. During the interim period, Railway Board can put somebody as officiating Member (Staff), in charge of about 14 lakh employees.
Santanu Sanyal reports from Kolkata: Three top-level positions in the Railway Board have been filled in the past few days.
These are Member (Engineering), Member (Mechanical) and Member (Staff). Of this, the position of Member (Engineering) lay vacant for a couple of months.
The Member (Traffic) retired on April 30 and his position is still to be filled up.
In all probability, the Railway Board Chairman himself has kept the portfolio in his hands. But the Chairman himself is due for retirement in June.
Eligibility
It remains to be seen who will succeed the present Chairman particularly in the wake of what is being called “railgate controversy”.
While there is no clear answer, all eyes are now on the present Member (Electrical), who is the senior-most Member on the Board. Theoretically, he should become the next Chairman. But that does not always happen.
Eligibility, it is said, is the sole criterion for the selection at that level but what is not-so-clearly stated is that there are so many other issues which are considered for eligibility such as the age, seniority and the service record.