Long Leave Beyond Rules

There must indeed have been very few people who knew that ULFA chief Paresh Baruah was still an employee of the Indian Railways without having worked for it for a single day during the last 30 years until they read about it in the newspapers. This interesting bit of news should cause many questions to be asked about the functioning of the Indian Railways and discipline within this mammoth organization. Is there any organization in the wide world that fails to terminate the services of an employee who has not shown up for work in 30 years or so? How can an employee anywhere be absent from work for that length of time without losing his job? Is anyone other than Paresh Baruah quite so privileged? Do the Indian Railways have any service rules at all? Otherwise, how can such a gross anomaly take place? Most people would be inclined to ask the Indian Railways whether this bizarre exception was not made in the case of Paresh Baruah out of fear. After all, what other explanation can the Railways offer after 30 years? Can the Railways now claim that they gave him 30 years’ ‘revolution leave’? By keeping  Paresh Baruah’s name on the payroll for 30 years without a stitch of work on his part, the Railways have created a very bad precedent which will rebound on it sooner than later. They will have to countenance complete indiscipline from all categories of workers. Another question that is likely to crop up is: What would happen if Paresh Baruah were to claim his salary or leave salary for 30 years till the day his name was removed from the payroll? Even if he were to be paid leave salary for 30 years, it would be an astronomical sum. What are the Indian Railways going to do if either Paresh Baruah or his authorized attorney were to produce a bill for arrears of salary and allowances for 30 years? THE SENTINEL