House panel summons railway engineer

The Assembly Assurance Committee ordering the Southern Railway (SR) Chennai Deputy Chief Engineer (DCE) to appear before it on December 17 to explain in person why he was absent at the review meeting in Vellore on November 30 has raised the hackles of railway staff who considered it an infringement of their rights.

This follows committee secretary K Srinivasan stating at Vellore that Railways was delaying work on two bridges at Ariyur and Kaspa in Vellore city despite the State government having completed its portion of work.

Though it had requested the DCE to explain the reasons in person, he had not attended the meeting. Hence, the notice was issued to him to appear in person with both the SR chief engineer and the Chennai Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) being informed of it.

Asked about it, Chennai railway sources said, “Asking for a railway staffer to appear before a State government committee was against the railway rules. Only the Railway ministry can be questioned by the State government and that too only through proper channels.”

Stating that such a move might endanger the present cordial relations between the State government and the Railways, railway officials said, “We have a precedent for this, as in 2006, the Kerala Assembly Speaker demanded that the Palghat DRM appear before him in person. As he did not obey two notices, the Kerala Home Secretary demanded him to appear and when he did so, the then Speaker was not even aware that the DRM had been served with the notice. To prevent such mistakes in future, the Kerala government has a minister looking after Railways and Posts and is the only state government to have this facility.” Chennai railway officials are scouring rule books to locate relevant sections to support their claim of not having to obey such arbitrary summons. “The reaction from the Southern Railway will be revealed on December 17,” officials said.

Meanwhile, action was taken on 146 of the 265 works, on which queries had been raised in the State Legislative Assembly, according to the Assurance Committee chairman and Radhapuram MLA IS Inbadurai. Reviewing works was undertaken by 72 government departments.

Expressing contentment with the works being carried out, Inbadurai said that Vellore Corporation’s solid waste management was laudable and was fit to be replicated in other local bodies as also TWAD’s (TN Water and Drainage Board) Amrut water supply scheme. The housing scheme for gypsies was not implemented in any other district, he added.