India's new railways minister asks office staff to work in 2 shifts

INDIA'S new railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who took charge on Thursday (8) following a mega cabinet reshuffle in the Narendra Modi government the day before, has asked officials and staff members in his office to work in two shifts to keep pace with him. The first shift starts at 7 am local time, an order by his office said hours after he took the office from Piyush Goyal.

“Hon’ble MR (Minister of Railways) has directed that all the officers and staff of MR Cell will work in two shifts i.e. 7:00 hrs-16:00 hrs and 15:00 hrs -12:00 midnight with immediate effect,” the order said, formalising nine-hour shifts in Vaishnaw’s office. The new railway minister is known to work till midnight.

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The order is applicable only for the MR cell (the minister of railways’s office) and not private or railway staff, DJ Narain, additional directorate general of public information, public relations, said.

The 50-year-old Vaishnaw, who has also taken responsibility of the information technology and communications ministries, is a bureaucrat-turned-parliamentarian from the eastern Indian state of Odisha. He was inducted into the cabinet after more than two years since his election to the Rajya Sabha on a ticket of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Vaishnaw, who has earned an MBA degree from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told reporters at the time of taking charge that there are lots of synergies in the three ministries that he has taken up and he would work to ensure that prime minister Modi’s dream is realised.

Vaishnaw replaced Ravi Shankar Prasad to lead the ministries of information technology and communications.