Daak Khalasis gone

Today i am so so proud of being a LocalCircles member.

In 2016 I had raised the issue below of railway officers having daak khalasi or phone attendant at their homes or in other words bungalow peons who were made to do all kinds of household chores.

After seeing one in action at a relative’s place i had demanded that this practice be ended. I understand that no new Daak khalasis are being appointed since last year.

Now the question is why have the ones employed are not being terminated or rather redeployed.

Our tax payer money cannot be used to to provide maids and servants in peoples homes.
Anyone has more insight please share. more

British Era Practice of Railways

Last week, I had gone to visit some extended family where the uncle was an officer of Railways. There was a peon at their place, furnished by Railways. Since I have been a regular contributor to this circle, I couldn't wait to find out more about this given Railways finances. Apparently, all Railway officers have a so called Telephone Attendant, Dak Khalsi which is basically household help at their home. This fellow does all kinds of works for them. He is hired as contract and then given the carrot of becoming permanent. Assuming he is getting paid 30000 p.m. 12 mths a year and Railways has 10,000 officers the annual tab runs to 360 crores a year. Such a misuse of tax payers money and the Railway runs in losses. No other Govt dept has this practice. And apparently, recently this practice instead of being banned has been approved per the Times of India article below with the reason that since Railway Officers work 24X7, they need someone at home to attend phone calls. Hope we can have healthy debate on this subject. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Railways-to-continue-with-peons-at-officers-residences/articleshow/47698222.cms NEW DELHI: The railways has hinted at continuing the British-era practice of telephone attendant-cum-dak khalasis (TADK) or bungalow peons. 'There is a need for TADK as several railway officials functions 24x7 and 365 days,' said railway board member (staff) Pradeep Kumar. He added, 'There has to be somebody at the residence to attend to the telephone and other works as officers remain on the field for longer hours.' There are allegations of officers mistreating and exploiting TADKs and cases of salaries being withheld. But TADKs, who are mostly temporary, bear with the troubles in the hope of becoming permanent in the railways.

Helpful Make Railways Better Apr 04

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VAITHEESWARAN SANKARANARAYANAN

Wherever this practice exists, it should be stopped forthwith and politicians must set an example and a role model. more

Apr 07

Stephen R N (Ex-Placement official & motivator)

CONGRATULATIONS - Shikha Ji. Just as in Railways "Daak Khalasis", in Army we had "Ardali's". Every Brigadier used to have one such servant - ardali...who would do all manual chores from buying subji to cooking and serving. Now that Shikha ji after 6 years of fight made "Dak Khalasis" Khallaas (finieshed), could we train our guns at "Ardaali's"? more

Apr 05

MOHIT PANDE (Consultant Power Projects & Environment)

Railways are still following British Practices. Even government officers, politicians and defense officers are provided domestic helper. more

Apr 05

Shekar Natesh (Textile Engineer)

Why only railways. This happens in every politician 's home as well more

Apr 05

Stephen R N (Ex-Placement official & motivator)

In politician's homes, yes there are servants but there are P.A. who have done B.A.(Political Science) and are simply waiting and watching to grab the chair. So it is a selfish motive and not servitude. more

Apr 05

Harpreet Singh

To bring about real change this will need to address and bring about a huge paradigm shift in mindset of the division of labour in all spheres of life globally and more so India. That is, White collar vs. Blue collar jobs. In the corporate world there a current debate, why CEO salaries are at times 1000 times more than the average salary of the company's human resource. Can one person alone contribute so much to an organisation's success? Pampering of all kind will only stop when we begin to honour every job and every contribution, especially monetarily. Lip service alone will not help. Every citizen is important not the government minister/officer/employee alone, just like the case of the private CEO. more

Apr 04

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