Long pending grievances of IT Cadre

Staff of IT Cadre have been struggling for existence of the cadre since its inception. Even after 13 years of implementation of IT Cadre not only IPAS (In place of PRIME & AFRES) and iMMIS ( in place of MMIS) has been
handed over to CRIS by Railway Board but also no adequate IT activities in lieu of IPAS & iMMIS…..

AIRF/24/C/2020 29th July 2020
The Financial Commissioner,
Railway Board,
New Delhi.
Dear Madam,
Sub:- Long pending grievances of IT Cadre.
Staff of IT Cadre have been struggling for existence of the cadre since its inception. Even after 13 years of implementation of IT Cadre not only IPAS (In place of PRIME & AFRES) and iMMIS ( in place of MMIS) has been
handed over to CRIS by Railway Board but also no adequate IT activities in lieu of IPAS & iMMIS have been allocated to IT Centers. Cadre strength has also been frozen since 12/06/08.. Besides, on one hand, many posts
are not only lying vacant but also many employees are waiting for their promotion, since a long, one the other hand , many employees of different IT Centers of different zonal HQs are being deployed in different divisions because those division do not have their own IT Centers. However Railway Board have changed the designation of the cadre but these are not on the line of other Technical Supervisors.
Information Technology has already become key of decision making as well as that of day to day working of Indian Railway . For uniformity in IT policy and that for uniform & proper, monitoring & administration of IT activities , on demand of AIRF , erstwhile EDP Centers has been transformed into resource centre and nodal agency for service provider for all IT activities of the Indian Railway but now it seems to be that the Board is preparing to roll back its own policy. On one hand data entry activities of the IT Centers are being phased out and on the other hand even after lapse of 13 years, besides some small Software Package, not a single, huge, existing IT activities has been handed over to IT Cadre. It is clear that reverse counting for disbanding of the IT Cadre has been started.
Hence it is requested for getting, stopped outsourcing of functioning of IT Centers ,that for framing of anti-labour IT policy and that for proper training of staff and taking over of different IT activities of different department of IR by IT Centre administration.
Operating System Administration, Data Base Administration, installation and efficient management of different type of package , Network Administration etc. are highly technical and specialized job which are
normally done by the senior executives, who are minimum graduate engineers and having a lot of experience. At present these post are being filled with the officers on ex-cadre basis. These officers are neither graduate engineer nor they have any experience . As a result these jobs have to be done by group C staff . It is mainly due to non- availability of an IT Cadre at Group A &B level. It is therefore suggested that a full-fledged organized IT Cadre should be made at Gr. A&B level giving a transparent career prospects and AVC at least upto Sr. Admn. Grade by introducing Central Informatics Service through UPSC for this new IT Cadre as recommended by V CPC. Reporting of these officers should be direct to General Manager. 50% post of Jr. Scale officers should be filled in departmentally and rest 50% and shortfall of departmental selection should be filled through UPSC as suggested above. Owing to long time consuming channel , it is
suggested that Recommendation of IT Cadre restructuring committee Report dt 24/03/15, reg. Gazzetted posts should be implemented at the earliest as first phase.
You are therefore, requested for settlement of under mentioned legitimate and long pending grievances of the Cadre:-
(1) Getting, Stopped outsourcing of functioning of IT Centers and that of framing of anti-labour IT policy.
(2) Implementation of Group C Restructuring order from 01/11/06 i. e. the very month when New IT cadre had been actually formed.
(3) Formation of IT Cadre at Group A&B level.
(4) Filling up of vacancies & lifting of ban on creation of new post in the cadre.
(5) Proper training of staff and taking over of different IT activities of different department of IR by IT Centre administration.
(6) Permission for IT cadre staff to take App. 2A and App. 3A exam. of Accounts Deptt. as done in the matter of Cash & Pay category.
(7) Expeditious creation of new IT Centers in all Zones, Divisions, Workshops and Store Depot etc.
(8) Changing of designation of IT cadre as suggested below:-
S. NO. Gr. Pay Existing Designation Suggested Designation a. Rs. 4600/- Sr. Engineer.(IT) Sr. Section Engineer.(IT)
Hence it is requested that a meeting should be convened, without further time loss, to discuss the issues threadbare and to resolve the issues at the earliest.
Thanking you,