Corruption
in Railways
Union Minister
Shri.Suresh Prabhu is very happy that he has introduced e-tendering in Railway contracts.. When I met
him on Dec ember 3rd, he listened to my criticism and at the
end gave me a booklet on his e-tendering
initiatives and said that would curb
corruption. This article is to tell you how misled he was.
e-tendering will make the contracts transparent . Overpricing to cover bribes can be
detected. To that extent, yes it is welcome. But corruption in Railways has
several dimensions outside the field of
tendering, which cannot be stopped unless surgical measures are resorted to.
Member –staff ( Mahesh
Kumar) of the Railway Board was asked to pay Rs.10 crores ( paid advance of Rs.90
lakhs) to get the “lucrative “ Member Electrical post. Except Mahesh Kumar’s suspension, and CBI
chargesheet, nothing happened. It is business as usual in all departments.
In the second biggest
catch Railway Traffic official Ravi Mohan
Sharma was arrested on Oct.22, 2014
while accepting Rs.5 lakh bribe
from a tour operator for getting coaches for special train on priority.
When CBI reached his house for raid, his relatives flushed out in the drain
Rs.10 lakhs which CBI re covered.( Oct.25th IBN)
CBI is scanning several
top officials. March13, 2014 ToI reports two
CBI enquiries on the Railway Board and
another on Rail Tel in giving mobile phones to
employees. A multi-crore weighbridges scam
(22nd April IE. 2015).
and. a Rs.300 crore freight scam in Tiruchirappalli Division ( June 11th, The Hindu,2015)
are being investigated. While the former relates to under-reporting ,
the latter refers to fixing cheaper classification.
. Central
Vigilance Commission reports that in 2014 there is an 82% increase in
corruption cases from 2013 and most of them were on Railways.( Aug.4th
ToI, 2015)
Under the
dual pricing system introduced in May-July 2008, the freight rate for
transporting iron ore for non-domestic consumption was more than three times
the fixed rate to transport coal for domestic consumption. Without
getting prescribed documents, the
consignment was classified under domestic consumption category
In a
report tabled in Parliament on Feb.12,2014 , CAG said the railways lost
revenue of Rs 2,487 crore on this account, according to its audit
conducted between May 2008 and March 2012. Additional loss of Rs.1796
crores was also reported during 2011-12..
The report
said about Rs 15,500 crore was to be recovered as penalty and recovery from
various iron export companies.
It said lapses had occurred at all levels,
including by the booking staff at loading-unloading points and commercial and
account officers at the divisional and zonal levels. The “Railway Board failed
to stipulate specific checks and balances for implementing their orders”, the
report said.
In
January 2007, East Central Railways had purchased 219 acres of land for about
Rs 140 crore without “any clear cut decision on utilisation”,
the report said. Of this, Rs 112 crore was raised through a loan that resulted in
interest liability of Rs 8.8 crore
The
report also said 65 per cent of
overhauled locomotives reported failure within three months of periodic
overhauls. Bibek Debroy famously asked the question in his report, “Why do two
thirds of locomotives develop problems within 6 months of periodic overhaul? Why do two thirds of
goods trains leave late because the locomotives are not available?” No answers. There is a corruption story
behind these two.
According
to CBI spokesperson the Railway Board had prescribed that IRCTC
shall provide Rail Neer at a rate of Rs 10.50 (approx) per bottle to the
private caterers and the private caterers will be paid Rs 15 (approx) per
bottle for supplying the same to passengers in premium trains. But the private
supplies also procured local cheap
packaged water buying them at Rs. 5.70
to Rs.7 and sold them for Rs.15.
Railways lost, supplier and officials gained.
Despite repeated requests of IRCTC, the
accused public servants did not take action against the private parties." .On
October 16th, 205, CBI recovered Rs.20 crores in cash in a
simultaneous raid on 13 locations and
the Rail Neer scam was bust.
A road inside Tiruchirappalli junction
was laid on 30-06-2012 and was in tatters within 1 year. It is worse now.. It
is a standing testimony
to corruption by the DRMs who gave the
work order for Rs.62 lakhs , signed the contract and satisfactory
completion report.
How can e-tendering detect all
these corruption ? Mr. Prabhu must make
the Railway men understand that Railways are not for Railway men and the public
are their paymasters, establish
accountability at all levels, reduce the zones from 17 to 6, corporatize
them, appease unions by golden
handshake, deflate the bloated bureaucracy, and above all,
rid the Railway Board of the
Railway- employee Members.
No Board of management in the World consists
only of its employees as our Railways do.
.
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