Dubey Ji, Petrol Price Hike, and Railway Finance

 

The Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), Varanasi, had an in-house petrol pump meant for DLW employees. It probably exists even today. There was no price advantage vis-a-vis the city pumps but we were sure of the purity and correct measurement. An Office Superintendent (OS) of my office, Dubey Ji, was entrusted with operating the pump for about an hour every morning. He was paid a small honorarium for this extra work.

One day, in an early morning surprise move, as it always happens, petrol prices were raised by a few rupees. Dubey Ji, unaware of the hike, sold several hundred litres of petrol that morning. There was an under recovery of a few thousand rupees in that one hour of sale. 

A DyFA&CAO, who never came to office before 11:00 O’Clock, landed at the petrol pump, with a previously never seen alacrity, sharp at 9:00 AM, when the sale usually ended, and seized records of sale. Within half-an-hour he sent a note to my office demanding that the loss of thousands be recovered from Dubey Ji and compliance given. The Finance/Accounts department could have done it by itself but the DyFA Saheb wanted to make a show of his alertness.

Dubey Ji, with a long face, brought the note to me saying that he didn’t want to do the thankless job any more. Dubey Ji, one of the dozens of Office Superintendents of DLW, was an elderly man, widely respected and trusted. Nobody had ever raised a finger at him for any wrongdoing in the high volume sale of petrol he did every morning. I told him to relax and not bother about the financial diktat.

I, then, in another half-an-hour, wrote back to the same DyFA Saheb that the OS did not get a newspaper allowance, which he could spend on reading newspapers every morning. There was no way that I could be sure that he was officially informed of the price hike. On the other hand the DyFA was getting a monthly allowance of three hundred rupees every month for newspapers. Surely, the DyFA must have read that morning’s newspaper before the DLW pump had opened for the day. Why didn’t he turn up at the pump displaying the same sense of financial alertness before the pump opened?

Then I wrote that I refuse to carry out any recovery from Dubey Ji’s salary and suggested that the same be recovered from the DyFA’s salary.

Needless to say the DyFA’s note was promptly withdrawn.