Not RRB but UPSC to conduct Railways recruitment exams; read important details

Important notice for aspirants who are looking for jobs in Railways as all new recruitment will be inducted through UPSC civil services exams under five specialties, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said on Thursday. This news announcement comes days after the Cabinet approved the merger of its eight services into one—the Indian Railway Management Service.

Railway Board chairman said that just like UPSC, Railways aspirants will have to appear for the prelims exam after which they will indicate their preference for IRMS under five specialties.

Out of the five specialties, four of them engineering specialties for technical operations comprising of mechanical, civil, telecom and electrical, and one non-technical specialty which will recruit officers for accounts, personal and traffic.

"The exact details will be worked out, but the thinking is like this -- the aspirants take the prelim and then indicate their choices. They will be given an option to appear for IRMS also," Yadav said.

He also added that an indent specifying for recruitment of the five specializations will be send—four for engineers, including that of stores and another for non-engineering in which any aspirants from humanities can also participate in the recruitment drive.

Reportedly, the first batch will be recruited in 2021, while the new five-member board with the merged officer will be in place by the middle of next year, officials said.

"Officers from Indian Railways who have experience of 35 yrs will only be posted as Chairman/CEO," CRB Yadav, who is due for retirement by the end of this month, said.

The decision to merge the services was to ensure that officers put railways first instead of their service which had become the case under the present system.

"All officers would continue to work in their specialized services till modalities were worked out regarding cadre merger. We would ensure that not even a single officer is disadvantaged in their career progression," said Yadav, amidst fears among officers that the merger of railway services would cost them seniority.

He also added that instead of pulling down the officers, railways will try to pull up the officers who are lagging behind.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet gave a green signal to bring changes in the railways by merging it eight cadres and departments into a single entity.

With the introduction of these new changes, Railway chairman along with four members will be responsible for rolling stock and finance, infrastructure, operations, and business development respectively will form the Railway Board.

-With PTI inputs

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