IRMS, a cure worse than the disease: Infinitely Redundant Management Service

 

IRMS, often humorously dubbed the Indian Railway Mismanagement Service, serves a rather unique purpose—one might say it is the ultimate Innovative Redundancy Management Scheme. It keeps the practically redundant railway executives in a state of confused bliss, humorously elevating them with a sense of importance even as their roles are being made increasingly marginalised.

I have explored this subject extensively in my blogs and newspaper columns, both with serious analysis and a tongue-in-cheek approach (some references in the end). Soon, I resigned to the realization that the IRMS was a dice too firmly cast or a goose too far cooked and held my peace. But recently, my interest was reignited upon stumbling across this intriguing news item: 

https://theprint.in/india/governance/as-reform-of-railway-services-merger-unravels-murmurs-of-demerger-gain-ground/2242702/ 

A bit of background, very briefly. No one can downplay the need for a positive resolution of the age-old problem of acute departmentalism and fragmentary working of its cadres on IR. Frequent workshops and discussions were held circa 2017/18 with MR in which I advocated, in the face of opposition from many fellow officers, that a unified cadre at top level was indeed a crying need. 

IRMS was soon announced with much fanfare and after much dilly-dallying but realizing the complications involved, everyone went to sleep. Then, starting one fine day, following a strong push from the PMO, the scheme went through a quick cycle of announcements and roll backs. It culminated in emergence of the present IRMS which in effect was something diametrically opposed to the original intent—a disastrous misstep. While the top management continues to luxuriate in their entrenched departmental silos, all new executive inductions are now funnelled through a unified service via the Civil Services examination. Career progression up to the board member level (Level 17) remains largely confined to the respective cadres, and the GM level (Level 16) was, in any case, even earlier open to all departments. The discipline-specific induction has been replaced by this half-baked IRMS, hastily born without serious consideration of its intricacies or the practical integration of trainee officers into active service.

Some notable negative outcomes:

Lack of clarity on the role of non-engineers in technical departments: The prospect of non-engineers managing engineering functions within Indian Railways is almost inconceivable given the current nature of engineering management. Yet, if they are excluded, the fundamental goal of unification is undermined.

No strategy to address entrenched departmentalism: There appears to be no plan to dislodge the middle and near-top management from their departmental strongholds, effectively defeating the very purpose of the IRMS.

Unclear administrative oversight for new entrants: Who will oversee the new recruits for their postings? The General Manager. This arrangement seems utterly absurd.

 

Erosion of prestige and pride: The most serious blow has been the severe deflation of prestige and pride in both engineering and non-engineering railway services. With IRMS now ranking as the least popular service among All India and Central services, only 90 out of the intended 150 candidates joined. Most of these have taken leave to reattempt the exam, leaving behind a handful who, instead of being eager to embark on a new journey, are left disillusioned and distraught. Can IR truly be advanced and governed in the 21st century by this disheartened group, lacking genuine love and pride for the institution?

Posting in Level 16 for ludicrously short tenures, in some cases limited to a  single day:

There is an arguable merit in providing a more level field for career progression but the way the appointments are being done through the so called 360 degree regime reeks of pick and choose. Then there is the travesty of officers being posted as GMs without having worked on any post which involved managing cross-departmental functions, like DRM.

Now, the important content of the news in blue followed by my comment: 

Four years after the Modi government announced the ambitious merger of eight railway services into one single civil service in a bid to have a leaner bureaucracy and reduce departmentalism, the reform seems to be unravelling as a result of a crippling shortage of officers with technical expertise. 

Firstly, there was no true merger—just a superficial unification at the lowest level. Secondly, expecting a leaner bureaucracy is downright laughable, as it was never designed with that in mind. As for the crippling shortage, what else could one expect when there has been no induction for three years?

 

Forty probationers of the first and only batch so far of IRMS have expressed worries in representations to the Railway Board about the government considering demerging the unified service into technical and non-technical services in a bid to address the purported shortage of officers with technical expertise. The identically-worded representations state, “The undersigned wants to bring to your kind attention concerns regarding fragmentation and dilution of the unified IRMS into so-called technical and non-technical streams. This would be completely antithetical to the historic reform of the Union Cabinet chaired by the Hon’ble PM of unification of erstwhile eight services of IR, and is against the vision of creating an efficient organisation capable of delivering upon the expectations of 21^st century aspirational India.” 

I empathize with the probationers, caught in an uncertain situation through no fault of their own. However, when considering the broader picture, separating into technical and non-technical wings might prove more effective than the current IRMS structure, though it would still be a remedy worse than the original ailment. As for labelling this botched experiment a 'historical reform,' I would merely tend to sneer and leave that to your judgment. 

According to sources, the ministry is indeed considering demerging the IRMS. “The ministry is of the view that the officers they are getting through the IRMS are mostly generalists, not cut out for core engineering operations,” An official said on condition of anonymity, “Therefore, with some minor tweaks here and there, the government is thinking of going back to the earlier system wherein technical and non-technical officers are recruited separately. it is being suggested that the UPSC starts recruiting engineers through the Indian Engineering Services exam like before. “The ministry has suggested the possibility of a demerger. But the decision has to be made at the level of the PMO.”, said another official.

If true, what a sudden realization—and so quickly! A 'minor tweak,' indeed! One shudders to imagine the corrective actions they would roll out. And once again, not surprisingly, the buck is being passed to the PM's desk.

The IR ministry has certainly leapt before looking, as it often does—God knows on whose advice. They have surrounded themselves with a many sycophantic officers in senior positions, incapable of rising above their servility, content with both delivering and receiving flattery. Unlike Kent in King Lear, who boldly tells the king, “…Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak when power to flattery bows? To plainness honor’s bound when majesty falls to folly…”, these officers would never dare intercede, even when the king makes illogical and rash decisions. One can only hope the ministry will reconsider and realize that there is no shame in reverting to the original 'disease', given that the so-called cures are proving to be so harmful.

…

 

References:

Blog, June 22:

https://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2022/06/good-railwaymen-get-chance.html

 

Hindu BusinessLine:  

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/railway-recruitment-policy-going-off-track/article65211192.ece

 

Tongue in cheek blogs, October and December 22:

 

https://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2022/10/talk-show-with-shakespeare-and-ghalib.html

 

https://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2022/12/shakespeare-and-ghalib-talk-encore-on.html