Centre Restores Railway Recruitment Policy

Source: The post on Centre Restores Railway Recruitment Policy is based on the article “Centre restores Railway recruitment policy” published in “The Hindu” on 7th October 2024.

Why in the News?

Recently, the Union government has restored the recruitment process for railway officers through the Civil Services Examination (CSE) and the Engineering Services Examination (ESE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). This decision marks a return to the pre-2019 recruitment structure.

About the changes

1. Background: In 2019, Indian Railways shifted to recruiting officers for the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) solely through the CSE, which led to challenges in filling technical roles and caused confusion in appointments.

2. Challenges with IRMS:

i) The IRMS recruitment method limited officer intake to 150 candidates per year.

ii) Both engineering and non-engineering candidates competed for a limited number of posts, leading to difficulties in finding suitable candidates for technical departments (e.g., Engineering, Mechanical, Electrical).

iii) This shortage led to an increase in promotee or subordinate rank officers occupying technical positions.

Recent Changes:

i) The Railways will now recruit officers for various departments, including technical roles, under the IRMS banner through both CSE and ESE.

ii) Recruitment through ESE was initially discontinued, but the new policy reinstates it for technical roles, thus allowing for more specialized candidates.

Organizational Restructuring:

i) The 2019 decision aimed to unify eight Group-A services into a single Central Service called IRMS. This unification was recommended by multiple committees, including Prakash Tandon Committee (1994), Rakesh Mohan Committee (2001), Sam Pitroda Committee (2012) and Bibek Debroy Committee (2015)

ii) The goal was to offer equal career progression opportunities for engineers and non-engineers.

UPSC Syllabus: Polity and nation