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Once over-staffed railway lacks staff

17,000 employees 'required' to keep it operational

M Abul Kalam Azad
With a staggering shortage of nearly 17,000 staff, Bangladesh Railway is in a shambles, often hiring retired railway employees on a temporary basis to fill up the gap.
Such an acute manpower crisis prevails as the state run company has
maintained a "no recruitment policy" for the last 27 years to minimise loss, senior BR officials have said.
The BR's recruitment process was suspended in 1985 to cut annual losses which stood at around Tk 50 crore that year. The loss was Tk 750 crore last year, officials added.
Increase in operational cost due to
the rise in fuel prices, salaries and other benefits of the staff, the government policy not to increase passenger and freight fares are the reasons behind the losses over the years.
Following the partition of India in 1947, the then East Pakistan Railway became overstaffed as thousands of employees coming over from India joined it.
There were some 60,000 regular employees at the time — more than a third required. BR's workforce now stands at around 23,000.
After the suspension of recruitment in 1985 following the recommendation of the Asian Development Bank, the government offered voluntary retirement to 8,000 staff in the early 1990s.
Over the years, hundreds of railway staff members have retired, but no fresh recruitment took place, resulting in the present manpower crisis.
A number of policymakers now tell The Daily Star that the decision of suspending recruitment and closing many stations was not wise.
A fresh recruitment did begin in 2010 but it too got stalled following allegations of irregularities in the process and the Tk 70-lakh railwaygate scandal involving former railway minister Suranjit Sengupta's assistant personal secretary and two railway officials last month.
"Overall maintenance and operation in the railway sector are being seriously hampered due to the manpower shortage,” BR Director General Abu Taher toldThe Daily Star.
He said the authorities cannot run many stations and also have to engage a good number of retired staff on a temporary basis to operate trains and maintain operational activities at stations, tracks and signallingsystems.
"A total of 146 stations across the country are now closed. We want to open many of them, but cannot do so due to manpower shortage," Abu Taher said, adding that each station required 10
to 12 staff.
There is also a huge crisis of locomasters, booking clerks, attendants and security guards, the railway DG said and added the authorities had appointed 137 locomasters and 112 station masters on a contractual basis in 2009 and 2010 to keep things going.
Railway officials have said a fresh recruitment will begin next week with an aim to hire 5,000 class-Ill and class-IV employees.
Application forms will be available on the railway's website, they added.
In the last few years, the BR made several attempts to recruit staff, but failed due to court injunctions against the recruitment.
The railway authorities cancelled an advertisement for recruitment several years ago following a court order.
Some railway staff, who had been working under temporary appointment, filed a writ petition challenging the fresh recruitment at that time. They demanded that the BR give them priority in the recruitment process, BR sources said.
Against this backdrop, the BR placed a demand for recruiting some 9,448 staff in 125 categories. However, the ministry of public administration gave approval for 7,275 staff under 68 categories in 2010.
So far, 1,611 staff have been recruited — 1,128 for the BR East Zone and the rest for the West Zone.
Communications Minister Obaidul Quader, after taking charge of the railway ministry last month, said 5,000 more staff would be recruited.
"There is no alternative to immediate recruitment for proper operation and maintenance of the railway sector,” he said, adding that 11,000 staff would be gradually recruited in the coming months.