More than 6,000 Railway officers under departmental action

New Delhi, Nov 24, 2008: In a drive to check corruption
and bring in transparency to its administration, the Indian
Railways has ordered departmental action against more than
6,000 officers for their alleged involvement in various
fraudulent practices.
Out of 18,729 preventive drives carried out by the
Vigilance Directorate of the Railway Board, as many as 6,269
officers, which include 91 gazetted officers, were booked for
various charges including making of traffic undercharges and
fraudulent payment to staff, according to an official data.
There are about 15,000 gazetted officers and nearly five
lakh non-gazetted officers in the Railways which have a total
strength of 14 lakhs approximately.
Of the staff booked for fraudulent practices, a maximum
number of them -- 1,047 -- including 1,040 non-gazetted and
seven gazetted were from Northern Railway, followed by 998 in
South Western Railway, 612 in Southern Railway and 471 in
Eastern Railway zone.
"The Vigilance department carries out regular checks to
bring in transparency and accountability in administration. It
will intensify its drive in the coming months to check leakage
of revenue," a senior ministry official said.
Railways has earned of Rs 53 crore from its drives in the
first half of this year.
The department also inspected Metro by carrying out 77
drives. However, no officer was booked for departmental
action in the sector.
In another development, the Railway Ministry has
identified ten sectors as thrust areas for the year 2008 for
intensive vigilance,
The areas include scrutiny of expenditure contracts,
earning contracts, misuse of various concession, including
free passes, traffic undercharges, implementation of various
schemes to boost traffic, checks in general coaches to detect
fraud in SPTM/UTS and Printed Card Tickets.
The remiaining three are Registration of
Vendors/Suppliers including medical firm, quality checks on
supply items, including medicines, and execution of works.
"Railways, in line with the instructions of Ministry of
Home Affairs, every year prepare two lists -- Agreed and
Secret list -- as a measure to combat corruption and to keep a
watch on officials whose integrity is suspected," the official
said.
The Agreed List, prepared in consultation with CBI,
includes names of officers whose integrity are doubtful.
While, the Secret List are of those officers of doubtful
integrity on the basis of accepted inquiry reports or proved
charges of corruption.
"Persons in Agreed/Secret List are not assigned any
sensitive posts and their working is kept under constant
surveillance," he said.
The Vigilance Directorate of Railways conduct thousands
of preventive checks to stop corruption and do away the wrong
practices from the department. "We are dedicated to make
Railways free from corruption," the official said.
Transparency International, that carries out a survey on
corruption in Government departments, has not yet covered
Railways in its survey as it felt that perceptible corruption
in Railways is on the decline, he added.