Transferred three days before retirement, Railway engineer challenges the order, calls ‘sheer madness’

livemint.com:

Railways Board transferred him to the national capital in the Northern Railway (NR) zone just three days before his retirement, reported PTI. The report says according to the Railway Board transfer order, KP Arya— chief communication engineer from the Bilaspur division (Chhattisgarh)—is supposed to join the Northern Railways zone on a higher administrative grade post on November 28, 2023, while his retirement is due on November 30.

Terming his transfer to the Northern Railway zone three days ahead his retirement as "sheer madness," and “an act of harassment", Arya has written a letter to Railways Board. "This order seems well in order at the surface, but when seen in the complete perspective of my imminent superannuation within a week on 30th Nov 2023, the madness shines brightly," PTI quoted Arya’s letter addressed to the Secretary, Railway Board.

"Because this is nothing but sheer madness only to transfer one employee, who has served the IR (Indian Railway) organisation his whole life, in the week of his superannuation so that his superannuation settlement gets disrupted and he gets harassed in the last days in the organization," he said. Arya told the news agency that the SECR zone already had a vacant HAG post, still, the Railway Board decided to transfer him to the NR zone on a similar vacant post.

Terming his transfer as a complete waste of public money by the Railways Board, Arya told PTI "I will work only for three days in NR headquarters, New Delhi and retire from the Indian Railways. The Railways will pay me about ₹3 lakh just as transfer money which is a complete waste of public money." Arya said it is a promotional transfer, hence he will not get any additional financial benefits.