New Delhi, Oct 21 Railway employees have demanded an online system to file Travelling Allowance and Overtime claims after some railway divisions raised concerns over high overtime payments and TA claims exceeding 21 days.
Some divisions and zones, including North Central Railway (NCR) and Bhavnagar Division of Western Railway, have already introduced online systems that allow employees to file TA and OT claims digitally and track their status, facilitating verification and faster settlement.
Railway employees have demanded that similar systems be introduced across all zones and divisions for quicker processing and verification of claims. They called manual filing a cumbersome and time-consuming process.
The demand has gained momentum after some divisions, particularly the Vadodara Division of Western Railway, raised concerns over high TA and OT claims.
On October 8, 2026, the Vadodara Division decided to review employees with the highest OT claims, as well as cases involving TA claims exceeding 21 days, for the period from April to September 2026.
“A review is required to be conducted in respect of the top earners of Travelling Allowance (TA) and Overtime (OT) in BRC Division, and the same is required to be submitted to Headquarters within 07 days,” an official communication from the Finance Department to the Signal and Telecom Department stated.
“In this connection, a list of employees who have availed the highest TA and OT has been prepared. It is requested that the cases falling under the above categories may kindly be reviewed in detail at your end,” the communication, addressed to the concerned senior official, stated.
The communication also asked the official to examine the reasons for the higher TA and OT expenditure, taking into account factors such as the nature of duties, staff deployment, workload, manpower shortages, and frequent or night duties.
The official was asked to provide specific reasons for the high expenditure on TA and OT, justify staff deployment involving higher expenditure, explain cases where TA claims exceeded 21 days, wherever applicable, and suggest measures to control and reduce such expenditure in the future.
“The matter may kindly be reviewed on priority, and a detailed report indicating the specific reasons for the higher expenditure along with the proposed corrective measures may be furnished to this office for further review and necessary action,” the letter stated.
Employees in some other divisions have also raised similar concerns, saying that Finance departments have questioned their high TA and OT claims in several cases.
“The railway can track the movement of employees using GPS devices and also introduce an online filing system for these claims. After working day and night, if we have to justify our TA and OT claims, it leads to unnecessary harassment. We have to devote our working hours to a futile exercise now,” a group of employees from Vadodara Division said.
(PTI News)
