Sudhir Kumar should help Lalu recalculating Rs 90,000 crore railway surplus

SUDHIR Kumar, influential 1982-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer and ex-OSD to former railway minister Lalu Prasad should help his former boss re-calculating accounts of the ministry in the last five years after current railway minister Mamata Banerjee questioned the claims of Rs 90,000 crore surplus funds in the interim budget presented by Mr Prasad before the Lok Sabha elections. Mr Kumar who co-authored the book titled “Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways Transformed”, wrote in details about the secret of railways’ success to position itself as a cash-rich organization. In fact, Ms Banerjee, who is now coming out with a white paper on funds with the railways, said that a corpus of just Rs 8,361 crore remained after expenditure of Rs 13,600 crore on account of Pay Commission award last year and Rs 2,600 crore this year. The issue became complicated further when Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had refused to give Mr Prasad, his former cabinet colleague, a clean chit and said the proposed white paper promised by the railway minister would uncover the reality and clear the air. Significantly, Lalu Prasad who is known for his political sharpness and wits, is not a mathematical wizard to find the railway books right. Nor will railway officers who were forced to take a backseat during his tenure would come forward to help the Bihar strongman by doing some accounting wonders! In fact, a number of railways officials were then perturbed by the fact that an IAS officer, Mr Kumar, was virtually running the show as Mr Prasad gave him a free hand to initiate any policy change and micro-manage everything to make Indian railways profitable. Mr Kumar was then so powerful that many Rail Bhawan officials including railway board members became virtual rubber stamps endorsing Mr Kumar’s line of strategy. Also, Mr Kumar remembered by heart many of the accounting figures and played a crucial role setting yearly target for the railways. Significantly, the Indian Railways with 1.4 million employees is one of the very few government arms which are not headed by IAS officers.

Jai Ho: Railway officials finally break free from an influential IAS

SENIOR officials at the Rail Bhawan have finally discovered that they are no longer under the dominance of an IAS officer. With former railway minister Lalu Prasad’s all powerful officer on special duty (OSD) Sudhir Kumar (See Picture) leaving the Rail Bhwan to join as a joint secretary in the ministry of power, top railway officials have regained the lost ground and become hyper-active to demonstrate their abilities to the new railway minister Mamata Banerjee. In fact, Indian Railways with about 15 lakh strong employees is the only government department which is not controlled by an IAS officer. Yet, during the last five years, the minister bestowed all power to 1982-batch Bihar cadre IAS Sudhir Kumar who in turn acted like a CEO of a company and micro-managed the show. In fact, he took many a bold decision to script the turnaround saga of Indian railways. Whereas Mr Prasad just monitored the macro issue and took only the politically sensitive decisions such as not hiking the passenger fare, it was Mr Kumar who remained a backseat driver to achieve a profit of whopping Rs 90,000 cr (about $18 billion) for the railways during the last five years. Along with Shagun Mehrotra, Mr Kumar finally penned a book titled “Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways Transformed In Four Years” to share the secret of success. As the new minister has already zeroed in a Central services officer as her OSD, the Rail babus don’t need to worry a repeat of an IAS dominating the Indian Railways any longer.

Babus in demand: Job at Central Electricity Authority The Central Electricity Authority under the ministry of power urgently requires the suitable candidates for filling up the post of Member (Planning) and Member (Economic & Commercial) in the revised scale of Rs.37400-67000 with a grade pay of Rs 12,000. They would be given ex-officio status of additional secretary to the government of India.