Reflections of Rajaram Bojji

Dear my young friends in railway service, I did not want to write first but after reading the anguish filled self-questioning coupled with seeking constitutional institution based protections etc in the letters posted by young officers, at the google site, felt it is necessary to contribute in the interest of the youngsters, in whose place I was decades ago and equally angry with the system. The only difference is while many a senior cooled down from hot lava state to simple cold wax state after 30 years of "service", I remained same hot angry man in the year of my retirement, as Cabinet Secretary himself mentioned in a personal one to one meeting at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan in 2004, called because of my letter to the Prime Minister as a lowly MD of a PSU. I must have been the singular exception of a serving officer filing to CBI a complaint against a Ministry! How did I survive? Why the system allowed me to pass through? Or did it? Let me admit frankly, without concern either...

ADHAR and ACD: On return from US sought from internet how to get ADHAR in Hyderabad. Sent an email to some nodal guy ans was pleasantly surprised it was responded to. Generally emails are ignored. EVen more surprising that as I was struggling with their so called help line, a call is made directly to my mobile, if I find some problem, to come directly to their headquarters and the needful will be organised. Even more surprised. I only sent my passport images in the email earlier and my ex-govt or railway connections were no where mentioned. Was surprised that as a common citizen so much attention was given. Well, I and my wife took an auto , made the trip, costed us Rs 250 but ok. Patiently our pictures, the finger prints etc were recorded, verified against our passports and we left the premises, with good feelings. But still wondered at the unusual treatment we received by the young man who met us and did everything needed, a stranger for us. While we were still wondering why some str...

Of late I have started watching old Vithalacharya movies ( 40-50 years old), telling stories of cruel wizards kidnapping beautiful princess and then a brave prince rescuing after a fight over two hours after realising I am after all expected to live like a simple cockroach and attempt no serious heroics. Without any opinion from my side the various stages verifiable by records of railways, let me narrate the story of ACD.Only matters of fact I would list below, how ACD arrived in railways and seems to be creating needless problems to the Ministry. 1. March 1999- A single page concept paper I sent to Board while grieving hundreds of lives lost in quick succession on railway collisions and level crossing collisions. 2. Shri SM Vaish (Member Khanna Safety Commission) said spend some money and demonstrate a prototype. 3. First prototype demonstrated to Shri VK Agarwal CRB on 15th Oct 1999. 4. First filed runs demonstrated to Members Khanna Safety Commission, Expert team from RDSOcomprising...

Ha Ha ! Was suddenly lifted back in memory to 1972 and my first line box at Shahabad. That Box I preserved. My wife just 20 yrs of age , found it very intriguing just as much I did, but I had more experience of seeing the seniors' boxes and , of course the trolley-man with his red turban in place, always gently guided. From 1970 to 72 it used to be food from line boxes of my seniors which kept me on track! What a wonderful tradition we had..the senior should always feed and take care of the junior! My CE used to make sure that I get my cup of tea from his saloon! This tradition we followed throughout our service. Yes, it is difficult not to get emotional and deeply miss my colleagues, innocent gang men I spent time with in railways. I am truly grateful for this article the HINDU, Open Page the HINDU, Sunday OPEN PAGE, August 28, 2011 We went online much before the computers came Mrs. Prema Ramakrishnan The Hindu The phrase “being online” is very much in vogue toda...

I agree--Carnatic music is very soothing! One thing one learns early in service is that except self, every one else has the smarter answer and no one actually listens to any one. Some develop a hobby of gardening, some others specialise in to painting, others in to jogging ,mountain climbing, and yes of course the golf, the royal pursuit apart from closed circles of card game clubs with happy hours. Intelligent but misunderstood by every one else, quite a few railway officers seek solace in areas external to own service areas. One of my friends and a batch mate did so much of research in to Carnatic Music that he finally published a much acclaimed treatise by the end of his service! The point is , as I do advise many a friend, enjoy the wonderful privilege of being a member of an organised service, -- a rare club where 24 hours you are taken care of, provided with games of exchanging meaningless notes, which the country thinks to be very important work, and finally rewarded wit...

It is truly impressive that normally quiet respected friends of mine are stirred to come out with their thoughts recently in mails to me. For a railway man an accident and determination of cause never ceases to provoke and invariably the battle lines are drawn department wise. Rarely truth is revealed. The technical fights are taken to the hollowed grounds of RDSO too, which is supposed to be a technical body, but there too, the same field attitudes prevail. Logical updating of Criteria for evaluating safety of track-vehicle interaction and safety certification process by RDSO for a new rolling stock got never done. The case of CRT wagon which got introduced despite poor oscillation trial results, one cannot forget. The way track engineers too fight not to budge from their poor track standards in earlier years, forced Tandon to introduce BOX-N, to"destroy" tracks, which he told me, with a wink at that time. Then track engineers went about introducing 90UTS rails. Confrontatio...

To Shri Dinesh Trivedi , Hon'ble Minister of Railway Rail Bhavan, New Delhi. Dear Sir, Rest assured I am not trying to congratulate you, to get any favour or attention from your high office. I served my nation to the best of my abilities and retired and refused to take up any commercial re-employment, except being a ( no salary) member of the Empowered Board of Government of India for delivering the ITER ( the first Fusion Reactor) in France, a multi national effort, for two years. Though it is unlikely my email would be put up to you, it is still my call of conscience that I should congratulate you for heading the august railway ministry, and share a few thoughts with you on this occasion. We railway men fall hopelessly in love with our railways. The emotional ties develop too strongly for us- may be because we serve 24/7 for over 35 years, unlike other services where, once they leave office , can go back to family and sleep peacefully. Welcome to the club Sir!! You too will now s...

My mind started roaming, on hearing about MR's announcement in the Parliament. Insurmountable problems of different kind arise for bureaucracy to deliver now... Usually, it would take three months for the budget orders to be issued. Then generally the GMs of railways will have to call for offer of rates from the Konkan Railway or the Railway Board may fix a kind of rate contract like DGS & D rate contract type with Konkan Railway. Being a PSU, Ministry has the power and precedent to place such orders particullalry when the product is covered by patent rights and is a proprietary item. Even for construction works Raliway Ministry places single cost plus orders for projects worth Rs 5000 cr on IRCON. The J&K case is one. The idea is the PSU will follow similar processes as the government and is subject to CAG check. Mind you it is cost plus contract! But it is normal practice to help quick decisions and project progress. But in this case the unit rates get fixed before hand t...

Jerry Rao wrote very nicely about Audit and am glad to know about his father Shri Ranga. " Our tamper-resistant institutions.......Jaithirth Rao jerry.rao@expressindia.com Many of our independent institutions have been buffeted by crises, and survived. If only we let them" Very positive and re-assuring article of faith for us. The respect due to these constitutional institutions like CAG, for enforcing checks and balances in the system, is of late not given by the executives. More often than not they find ways of circumventing them and also find soft ways to seduce them too to turn a blind eye selectively to the executives' actions of commission and omission. When I was designing and implementing my own dream Railway Applications Package, in Konkan Railway, which has as its motto that every single data entry shall be done only once , but influences various algorithms where the data is required, that is train operation, real time control charts, instructions to station ...

Dear Sirs, ( addressed to members in Railway Board Government of India) The on going field adoption trials for multiple lines, for electric locomotives, seem to be aiming at much wider scope of producing some new product other than proven ACD, if what I heard from a filed operative is true. Hope I am wrong. But it is my duty to place on record the implications in public interest so that implementation of ACD is not converted as a case of serious scam and fraud on the nation. To adopt the proven ACD system , in electrified multiple lines , only two issues are to be studies. How to fix the equipment in locomotives and guard vans, and how the locomotive electronics and ACD system interact without interference from each other. Some shielding and earthing issues will have to be addressed. The reception of GPS under traction wires is already proven earlier in surveys conducted in these areas, but still that could be one item. Then mounting the guard ACD, a portable unit, under wire has some...

Print E-mail Ignoring safety, breeding insecurity 28 July 2010 It is a burning issue within Indian Railways, amongst conscientious senior officers who know about what is happening and all that could ~ and should ~ have been done to avert the spate of track tragedies that have cost thousands of lives over the past few years. Yet, apart from lip-service to the need for an anti-collision device (ACD), usually in the context of a cry in favour of the installation of a ruinously expensive Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) after every train accident, the technologies are confused. And people remain unaware of our indigenously developed, cheaper and superior technology infused ACD, the Raksha Kavach, the introduction of which has been repeatedly stalled. Perhaps Miss Mamata Banerjee need to be reminded of her own commitment to an ACD, and there's none better placed to do so than Mr Bojji Rajaram, a retired Indian Railways official who served as MD Konkan Railway Corporation and as...