New Delhi: Dubbing as "obsolete" the
prevailing system of appointment to senior posts in railways
which involves Cabinet clearance, Railway Minister Dinesh
Trivedi on Tuesday pitched for a "drastic change" in the process.
"There are so many vacant posts of General Manager (GM)
Railways and these appointments are awaiting cabinet
clearance. How will cabinet decide who will be my GM?",
Trivedi asked.
There are 12 posts of GM lying vacant for a couple of
months and though the panel of names has been shortlisted and
sent for approval to the appointments committee of Cabinet,
they are yet to get clearance. There are total of 26 posts of
GM in Railways.
"If there will be an accident tomorrow, cabinet is not
going to take the blame. I would be directly blamed. Something
needs to be done about it.... It is obsolete," he said at a
PHD conference here.
Trivedi said "there are so many obstacles. The system
needs to be changed. It needs a drastic change to address the
issue."
However, later he clarified that he is not blaming
anybody.
"Let us not play blame game. The system needs to be
changed and it should be transparent."
Referring to Adarsh housing society scam, he said, "One
Adarsh scam does not mean everybody is corrupt."
On railways performances, he said there are challenges
but there are also great opportunities in railways.
Trivedi also suggested creation of a new post of General
Manager, Coal, to market coal loading aggressively.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 08, 2011, 17:39