The Railways, which has about 13.1 lakh employees, is divided into 16 zones across the country for the purposes of operation and management.

New Delhi: Nearly 5,300 railway employees faced departmental action for their alleged involvement in corruption and other irregularities last year.

The railways carried out 23,362 preventive checks across the country to check any irregularity and found 5,297 personnel, including 77 gazetted officials, allegedly involved in various wrong practices during 2013, according to official data.

A highest of 3,761 such preventive checks were carried out in Northern Railways during which 1,391 officials were booked for departmental action, it said.

Besides, 545 officials working under Southern Railways faced departmental action for their involvement in alleged irregularities during 3,642 preventive checks carried out by the vigilance directorate of the Railway Board.

Similarly, 723 officials of Western Railways were booked during the year, the data said.

Necessary departmental action was taken against 292 officials of East Central Railways, 339 of Central Railways, 282 of Eastern Railways and 272 of North Eastern Railways, among others, for their alleged involvement in dereliction in duty.

The Railways also noticed several cases of overloading of rakes in different railways zones. During 2013, due to vigilance checks by zonal railways, an earning of Rs 43.80 crore by way of undercharges on overloaded goods had been raised.

As a follow-up, Railways Board decided to install electronic in-motion weigh-bridges at originating and other strategic locations in different zones during 2011. 190 such weigh-bridges have already been installed or commissioned and another eight are under supply or installation, according to a railways ministry document.

The vigilance wing of the Railways took various measures to check fraudulent payment to its staff also, it said.

The Railways, which has about 13.1 lakh employees, is divided into 16 zones across the country for the purposes of operation and management.

PTI