Posting of B. K. Joshi as COM/SECR/Bilaspur

A Big Question-Mark On 
The Impartiality & Competency 
Of The Railway Board Vigilance

This posting order has surprised many officers on Indian Railways because of the most dubious background and record which Shri B. K. Joshi holds.

Firstly, He was transferred out of South Eastern Railway, Kolkata in 2005 due to innumerable complaints from customers regarding irregularities and corruption indulged in by Shri Joshi. Then, he was unceremoniously shifted from the post of CFTM/ECoR in 2008. At the instance of the Railway Board Vigilance branch, which found him to be dishonest and corrupt on many counts. Again, this remarkable 'manipulator' managed to become CFTM/ECoR in 2009, but thanks to the initiative and pro-activeness of the Vigilance branch he was again shunted out within a month of becoming CFTM. But alas, this time around his godfathers and patrons sitting at the Railway board have managed to make him COM of an important Railway by-passing the genuine claims of his own batchmates and seniors. This has resulted into a very embarrassing situation for his good friend Shri Vinayak Swain, CPTM/SECR, who will have to report to Shri Joshi in spite of being senior to him in the service records. 

This also raises a big question-mark on the impartiality and competence of the vigilance branch at the Railway board level, which has only recently (April-May, 2011) supplied questionnaire to Shir Joshi on the issue of illegal diversion of domestic iron ore rakes to the ports of Paradip and Vishakhapattanam from some unloading points of East Coast Railway, like Nirgundi, Jakhapura etc. It is a known fact that such illegal re-booking and diversion of thousands of tonnes of domestic iron ore for export purposes is not possible without the connivance of the CFTM only who has the powers to re-book or divert the loaded rakes. But apparently, the vigilance branch at the Board has been suitably managed, of late, to be sufficiently sympathetic towards Shri Joshi. 

Recently, a scandal of huge proportions has also been unearthed in which Shri Joshi was accused of allotting WIS rakes to a particular firm at Nayagarh station of East Coast Railway overlooking the claims of 50 applicants, who had pending applications for the same. Similarly, it is also a matter of investigation as to how a particular company has been helped by Shri Joshi in various ways for their siding near Nayagarh station of East Coast Railway. 

Finally, concerns has been raised by various quarters on the mother of all scams, i.e. the iron ore scam of Orrisa and Jharkhand which could not have taken place without the active help and support of the two Chief Freight & Transport Managers (CFTM) of South Eastern Railway and East Coast Railway to the mining Mafia which rules over the hills of these two states. 

What is remarkable with the Railway vigilance machinery is that every time a big scam comes to light only some Junior level officers who are mostly innocent are made scapegoats and the main culprits like Mr. Joshi, not only escape the long arms of the law, but also find enough number of sympathizers and patrons at the Railway Board level, who reward them with choice postings and desired places. Looking at the inglorious records of Mr. Joshi, it is clear that by posting him in SECR thousands of customers of South Eastern Railway and East Coast Railway have been saved alongwith hundreds of upright and honest traffic officers of these two railways. May we say that many anticipated unpleasant situations have been avoided over these two railways where angry customers as well as officers have been long suffering due to this great traffic officer. 

In case of Mr. Joshi, it is also a well known fact that Shri Rinkesh Roy, Director/TT/G, Railway Board, has managed to pull the right strings to ensure his elevation to the post of COM/SECR through his old connections with the present Railway Board Chief, who was once DRM/Bilaspur, where Mr. Roy has served as Sr.DSO. The other factor is that a retired senior IRTS Officer, who is currently working as Consultant to many companies having siding related interests over SECR and most of this projects are moving at a snails pace inspite of the many visits that this retired senior IRTS officer has paid to Bilaspur and the many gala parties that he has thrown in the honour of all sorts of officers of all denominations of SECR. Reportedly, the present COM and CTPM of SECR are very suspicious about the ways and means adopted by this retire senior IRTS officer. 

The posting of Shri Joshi will certainly provide the momentum to all these projects as Shri Joshi has worked under this retired senior IRTS officer for many years in South Eastern Railway and needs to pay back the favours that this retired senior IRTS officer had very kindly extended to him by rescuing him from the clutches of vigilance several times. These favours have been partly offset by the recent nomination of this retired senior IRTS officer as consultant at Dhamra port in Khurda Division in ECoR which is said to be done under intense pressure from CFTM/ECoR Mr. Joshi. It is also believed that apart from imparting a new fillip to this retired senior IRTS officer's career as a consultant, the posting of Mr. Joshi will also smoothen the relations between the COM and the CFTM of SECR as the current CFTM/SECR Mr. C. R. Swain did not share a good working relations with the outgoing COM Shri Ajay Shukla. It is also worth recalling here that Mr. Swain was perhaps the only CFTM of a railway before getting the SAG grade ! This was also made possible by none other than Mr. Rinkesh Roy, whose presence at Railway Board has proved to be supremely beneficial for some country cousins from Orissa. 

The extension of the services of Mr. Roy as Director Transportation, Railway Board should be seen in this light. It is a norm for officers to be transferred out of the Board after a stint of 4 years, but in case of Mr. Roy this norm is going to be violated in all probability only because he has proved to be the most reliable conduit of money from the traffic lobby to the higher-ups at the board. We will elaborate on this issue later, but for now, let us wait and watch as to how Mr. Joshi channelizes the ill gotten wealth of the coal Mafia to his godfathers and patrons at the Railway Board in as smooth a manner as he has done with the iron ore mafia of SER and ECoR..!! 

Jai Ho...!!