‘Sheer madness’: Railway engineer transferred 3 days before retirement

"Sheer madness," responded a senior engineer to the Railway Board when it ordered his transfer from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh to Delhi three days before his retirement.

The chief communication engineer from the Bilaspur division of South East Central Railway (SECR) has written to the Railway Board terming his transfer to the Northern Railway (NR) zone three days before his retirement an act of harassment.

According to the transfer order, KP Arya is supposed to join the NR on a higher administrative grade post on November 28, 2023, while his retirement is due on November 30.

"This order seems well in order at the surface, but when seen in the complete perspective of my imminent superannuation within a week on 30th Nov 2023, the madness shines brightly," Arya said in a letter addressed to the Secretary, Railway Board.

He added, "Because this is nothing but sheer madness only to transfer one employee, who has served the IR (Indian Railway) organisation his whole life, in the week of his superannuation so that his superannuation settlement gets disrupted and he gets harassed in the last days in the organisation." Arya told PTI that the SECR zone already had a vacant HAG post, still, the Railway Board decided to transfer him to the NR zone on a similar vacant post.

"I will work only for three days in NR headquarters, New Delhi and retire from the Indian Railways. The Railways will pay me about Rs 3 lakh just as transfer money which is a complete waste of public money," Arya told PTI.

Though this is a promotional transfer, Arya will not get any additional monetary benefit. "My promotion was due about six months ago but it was kept pending. However, as per the government norms, I started getting monetary benefits for that post from the day my promotion was due. So, this promotional transfer is only to harass me." The engineer in his letter alleged, "In the series of harassment being meted out to me, a professionally very very competent, honest and upright officer by a cabal of officials of dubious character … I found it my duty to expose the concerned Railway Board officials as I have always done."

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