As was underscored by The Morning in an editorial earlier this week, in a context where the

Government is taking measures to implement solutions to the direct impacts of the economic

crisis, this year (2023) will see considerable direct and indirect adverse impacts of those

solutions on the people. The country has already started experiencing some such impacts, one

of the most notable ones being the situation of the railway service.

Since the beginning of this month, a number of scheduled train operations were cancelled,

which was attributed by the authorities to the lack of staff members which was the result of the

retirement of railway employees in accordance with the Government’s newly adopted policy of

making retirement at the age of 60 years mandatory. As per the reports, by 31 December 2022,

about 500 Railways Department employees had retired, and by yesterday (5), over 140

passenger and freight trains had been cancelled. Needless to say, with the railway service being

one of the most economical and popular modes of public transport, this sudden and massive

development struck a heavy blow to train commuters, consequently affecting a considerable

segment of the country’s workforce, among others.

The question many ask, and with good reason, is why the railway authorities or the Government

are not taking necessary measures to avoid this situation, because an employee’s retirement is

not something that is decided or meant to occur overnight. At the same time, the Government

had announced in advance its plans to strictly implement the retirement-age-related regulations.

According to topmost Railways Department authorities, although they had informed all the

relevant authorities of this issue months ago and took the necessary measures as per the

available procedures, their efforts had not been adequate to fill the newly created vacancies. As

per the railway authorities, they have taken measures to solve the issue, including recruiting a

certain number of employees on contract basis, alongside plans to hire more staff internally.

However, it is evident that the measures already taken and the said plans have fallen short of

the need, as train commuters are left with an inadequate number of and delayed trains.

If the “immediate” actions the authorities have taken have not addressed the aforementioned

issue, that means that their immediate responses need to be further improved, and more

importantly, expedited. If this is the best that the railway authorities and the Government could

do, despite being aware for months of the likelihood of this issue arising, that shows serious

issues in the general retirement, recruitment, and training processes in the Railways

Department, and in the overall policies pertaining to getting prepared for issues that require

rapid responses.

While the importance of addressing the above mentioned immediate issue cannot be stressed

enough, now that the Government has taken a policy decision to direct employees to retire at

the proper retirement age, this situation also calls for medium- to long-term solutions, especially

policy changes, in order to prepare for retirements, recruitments, and trainings in the future.

There is no debate that it takes a considerable period of time to train certain railway employees,

especially train operators. However, that situation should not be an excuse, but the basis for

such long-term practical policy-related changes.