Reduce 1,839 posts from sanctioned strength in 2024-25: South Central Railway to officials

South Central Railway has directed its officials to reduce two per cent or 1,839 posts of its total sanctioned strength over 88,000.

The posts from different divisions and units will be surrendered in the financial year of 2024-25, according to a circular issued on Tuesday by South Central Railway zone to its various department heads.

The Zone's written communication with a subject - Man Power Planning - Reduction in sanctioned strength for the Financial Year 2024-25 - referred to a Railway Board's letter dated May 8, 2024 in which the Board asked all the Railway Zones to reduce two percent of its total sanctioned strength.

The Board's letter to zones with a subject 'Rationalisation of manpower in FY - 2024-25' provided zone-wise sanctioned strength as on April 1, 2024 and number of posts to be surrendered in the financial year of 2024-25 in a tabular format.

The SCR zone has asked its department heads to comply with the Board's direction.

"It is decided to reduce the sanctioned strength with a fixed target of 1839 posts for the financial year 2024-25 (redistribution+surrender)," the SCR's letter said, providing the division and department wise number of posts to be surrendered in a tabular format.

According to the letter, the maximum 476 posts will be surrendered from the Secunderabad Division, one of the six divisions in the SCR zone.

The Board's official communiqué of May 2024 suggests that the surrendering of posts is a part of the annual performance agreement (MOU) that the Railway Board and the General Managers of zonal railways signed for the financial year of 2024-24.

Based on that, the zones further entered into another annual performance agreement (MOU) with their respective principal head of departments, divisional railway managers, chief workshop managers as well as branch officers.

"It is therefore requested to identify the posts and reduce them as desired by the Railway Board based on the Key Performance Indicator of MOU to achieve the target well before the end of financial year 2024-25," the SCR letter said.

The process of reduction of posts is also going on in other zones following the Board's May 2024 communication, according to which, all zones and production units are supposed to furnish the details of achievements of targeted reduction to the Board through the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) portal.

"It is pertinent to mention that during the analysis of data received from the previous year, it was observed that many Railways/PUs/Units normally await till the end of financial year, and then maneuver to achieve these targets proportionately on monthly basis and its accumulation for end of financial year may be avoided," the Board's May 2024 letter said.

The annexure with the Board's letter regarding 'Manpower Rationalisation (Redistribution+Surrender) Target for 2024-25' has three columns and three rows each mentioning Railway zones/unions, their respective 'Sanctioned Strength' as well as surrendering 'Target for 2024-24'.

According to the annexure, out of total 14,40,789 posts, 28,816 posts have to be surrendered in FY 2024-25. The Northern Railway with the highest strength of 1,62,142 posts has to surrender 3243 and the Eastern Railways with the second highest strength of 1,26,418 posts has to surrender 2528 by the end of 2024-25.

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