Amid low-key Puja celebrations, railway employees were in for some cheer with the South Eastern Railway giving out festive bonuses to over 20,000 employees of the Chakradharpur division on Friday.

As much as Rs 36.16 crore was credited to bank accounts of 21,045 railway employees after Thursday’s announcement that about 11.58 lakh non-gazetted railway employees across the country would be granted bonus equivalent to 78 days wages for financial year 2019-20.

Senior divisional commercial manager of Chakradharpur division Manish Pathak termed it as productivity linked bonus. "This is for the sixth consecutive year that productivity-linked bonus is being given to railway employees," he said, adding that most of those who were benefitted were based at Chakradharpur and Tatanagar.

Divisional railway manager of Chakradharpur V.K. Sahu, who extended festive greetings to all employees, said, the bonus was the railways way of motivating employees to improve performance and enhance productivity levels.

The maximum amount of bonus payable to a railway employee worked out to Rs 17,951.

But many employees of Chakradharpur division complained about a delay in payment of bonus, citing earlier years. "Payment of annual bonus was much delayed this year. Puja has already started. Today (Friday) is Saptami when we got our bonus. Last year, bonus was paid much before the beginning of the festival," said a railway official based at Tatanagar.