Railways on recruitment drive, on track to hire over 1 lakh personnel this year

An economic slowdown may be affecting the rest of the
economy, but the railways seems to have taken little notice of it. The
country's largest employer is on track to hire over one lakh personnel this
year (around 1.17 lakh to be precise), in its critical Group C and Group D
posts which cover jobs ranging from station masters to technical and track
supervisors to train drivers and vital safety staff.

Recruitment Over Early Days

 

That's a quantum jump from the around 95000 personnel hired over the last two
years in these categories. "And for future vacancies too, which are likely
to arise over a two year timeframe, fresh recruitment process has also been set
in motion," says a railway official. About 40,000 employees either retire
or die or superannuate every year and must be replaced.

Railway recruitment

took a big hit in 2008 due to a
combination of events - in October 2008, candidates for the railway recruitment
board exam were assaulted at Mumbai railway station by Maharastra Navnirman
Sena activists. This was followed in a few months by leaks of question papers
for railway exams in Allahabad and Ajmer, in late 2008 and early 2009 and then
in Mumbai in 2010. Then there were elections in 2008, 2009, and in 2011.

In 2009, the railways began a revamp of the recruitment process. And a big
chunk of the recruitment in the last two years or so was to make up for the
delay in 2009 and 2010. In 2011-12, about 23,000 Group C vacancies were filled
- this year that number is expected to go upto 32,000.


In comparison, Group C recruitments in earlier years were less than half that.
There was just one exam conducted in 2011 - in 2012, there have been 10 so far
for Group C posts. And exams for Group D recruitment will add another 85,000
personnel.

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