Agra division appoints 'medically unfit' person as train controller, official seeks transfer

New Delhi: Nearly two months after being appointed as train controller in Agra division, a railway official has urged his seniors to shift him to some other 'low-stress' job as he is 'medically unfit' to work in the control department.

“His application is under consideration,” Agra Railway Division PRO Prashasti Srivastava told PTI.

The train controller's plea once again highlights a pertinent issue of transfer of medically decategorised officials to high-stressful departments such as train control.

The official, Sanju Kumar, 39, met with a road accident in March 2021 while he was posted as deputy station superintendent of Bansi Paharpur railway station in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.

Official communications between Kumar and the department show that he went through multiple brain surgeries and finally in November 2021, he was medically decategorised by the railway doctors.

The medical board instructed him to stay away from jobs related to running trains, railway tracks, machine rooms, etc. In January 2022, a screening committee offered him an alternative posting as chief controller of the Agra division. Kumar pleaded to be shifted to somewhere else referring to his medical condition.

On his request, he was transferred to a training centre where he took up the work of teaching. However, on November 20, 2023, he was again posted as controller in the control department.

A recent official request from Kumar to his seniors, in which he has narrated his medical condition, said, “A part of my brain has been removed. I am unable to work in a control department. I am mentally unfit. I request seniors to save my family’s life and get my screening done to transfer me to some simple work in another department.”

Employee unions and some railway officials have expressed concern for Kumar as well as for safety of train operation in the division.

“I am surprised to know that a person, who himself says that half of his brain has been removed, has been posted to a position which requires a high level of alertness and acumen. The railway medical board also confirms that he cannot work in these places,” a senior railway official, seeking anonymity, said.

Shiva Gopal Mishra, general secretary, All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF), said that he was apprised of the issue and he requested the division to take corrective measures in the interest of the employee as well as railway safety.

“This is a serious matter. While the wellbeing of an employee has been overlooked, the safety of train operations has been put to risk by the officials who have taken this action,” Mishra said.

Last year, senior railway officials such as Dr Pranai Prabhakar, Principal Chief Operations Manager (PCOM), North Western Railway, and Manoj Krishna Akhouri, former Principal Chief Operations Manager in Northern Railway, wrote to the Railway Board requesting it not to appoint medically unfit officers in the control department.

"Medically decategorised persons should generally not be selected as train controllers. Any handicap of a person is a restricting factor for working as a controller, where there is a high level of stressed working condition," Dr Prabhakar wrote, adding this not only affects the health of the candidate who is already having a medical condition but also increases the burden of co-controllers, hampering overall performance of the setup.