RAILWAYS. 
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but compulsory for all drawing Rs. 20 or over. instead of Rs. 30 per 
month, which is the usual rule 
Gratuities, 
As regards retiring gratuities, we recommend that the limitation 
now placed upon the grant of a gratuity to a subordinate on retirement or 
resignation after 15 years’ qualifying service should be modified to permit 
of his voluntary withdrawal from the service, if so inclined, without any 
qualification except that of adequate previous notice of his intention. 
Debits. 
The question of fines is dealt with in another section of this 
Report but we must refer here to deductions made from wages of railway 
employees under the name of debits. These are generally raised against 
the staff in respect of (@) the issue of unnecessary telegrams, (b) loss or 
damage to railway property in their charge, (c) compensation claims paid 
by the railway to the public, where loss or damage to goods occurs while in 
railway custody, (d) undercharges in fares and freights and (e) short re- 
mittances and base coins. Figures of actual debits raised and of the 
monthly pay of the members of staff concerned have been, submitted, but 
not details of relative recoveries. We are informed that, in cases of loss or 
damage to railway property and to parcels and goods, debits are generally 
raised in the event of negligence on the part of the staff, different forms of 
punishment being used in other cases, according to circumstances. Under- 
charges in connection with fares and freights account for many of the 
debits and provide continuous ground for complaint. It takes some time 
for the undercharges to be detected in audit, and further time elapses before 
notice of them reaches the responsible parties. Figures supplied by one 
administration show that 40,648 debits of the total value of Rs. 2,60,578 
were raised on account of undercharges during the year ended 31st October 
1929. Of the amount raised, Rs. 1,01,309 was withdrawn, Rs. 1,29,025 
was actually recovered and the balance of Rs. 30,244 was still outstanding 
on 23rd December 1929. We were informed that the staff obtain recoup- 
ment for these debits from the merchants. As we understand the position, 
the members of the staff against whom the debits are raised personally 
approach the merchants in the matter. This method was confirmed by 
the representative of another railway who explained that * most of these 
debits are not paid by the staff themselves but by the consignee. They 
are regular dealers at the stations, and out of motives of policy, I 
suppose, they pay the debits”. In our opinion this system of re- 
covery of undercharges and recoupment is undesirable. Evidence that 
details of debits were not kept in Separate lists or specially consi- 
dered was borne out by instances brought to our notice of the same 
members of station staff having debits raised against them month 
after month. Considerable hardship is caused to members of the staff 
by large deductions from their pay, which may be made months after 
the mistakes occurred. We understand that an officer has been placed 
on special duty to investigate and report on this question. We suggest 
that a special effort should be made to get at the root cause of the trouble,