Railways begin mega recruitment process, 10 pc reserved for economically weaker sections

New Delhi: In line with the mega recruitment process for 1,51,548 employees initiated 14 months ago, Indian Railways will initiate fresh recruitments of 2,30,000 more employees under various cadres of Indian Railways, over the next two years in two phases.

In line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Railways is consistently expanding its workforce to match the manpower requirements of new projects and increase the overall efficiency of the entire railway network.

These recruitment drives will fix long-standing issues of overtime work, delay in project implementation, low efficiency, and constraints on upgradation. With the increase in investment in Railways being threefold since 2014, recruitment needs have also increased, which will lead to job-led growth and expansion of Indian Railways.

Presently, Indian Railways has a sanctioned strength of 15,06,598 employees. Out of these, 12,23,622 personnel are on roll. The remaining 2,82,976 are vacant posts. Recruitment for 1,51,548 posts is going on, leaving 1,31,428 posts still vacant.

Further, it may also be noted that approximately 53,000 and 46,000 railway employees shall retire in 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively, causing an additional vacancy of approximately 99,000 employees. Thus, after accounting for the current recruitments in progress, there will be total net vacancies of 1,31,428 and approximately 99,000 i.e. approximately 2,30,000 employees in the railways over the next two years.

These are proposed to be recruited over the next two years in two phases. The first phase of fresh recruitment of 1,31,328 posts shall be initiated in the month of February-March, 2019.

As per reservation policy of the government, around 19,715, 9,857 and 35,485 number of vacancies shall be reserved for SC, ST and OBC candidates respectively. Further, as per the 103rd Constitutional Amendment recently passed by the Parliament, 10 per cent of these vacancies i.e. around 13,100 shall be filled in from economically weaker sections (EWS). This cycle shall be completed by April-May, 2020.

After the first phase of fresh recruitment of 1,31,328 personnel is completed, the second phase of recruitment of approximately 99,000 personnel against the vacancies arising out of retirements shall be initiated. As per the reservation policy of the government, approximately 15,000, 7,500, 27,000 and 10,000 posts shall be reserved for SC, ST, OBC and EWS candidates respectively.

Recruitment shall be for various cadres and minimum eligibility criteria shall vary from certification from industrial training institutes or diploma or above in engineering or graduation in any discipline, depending on the post for which the candidate is applying.

These recruitment cycles will result in massive direct and indirect employment generation. Recruitment of 1,31,328 persons in the first phase followed by recruitment of 99,000 persons shall create around 2,30,000 direct jobs.

The resulting increase in efficiency and investment will boost the regional economies, while the boost in connectivity through the Railways will integrate the economic potential of regions and give further rise to job opportunities for the youth of the nation.