Railways begins process to fill 90,000 posts

New Delhi: After withdrawing two contentious criterion (age limit and ITI degree), the Railways has begun the process of what could be termed as the world's largest hiring spree. The Ministry of Railways has initiated the process to fill around 89,500 employees for various posts in different departments.

The process is said to be a part of government's initiatives to crush opposition's claim that enough jobs were not being created by the government which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The hiring process would be for assistant loco pilots, technicians, gangmen, switchmen, trackmen, cabinmen, welders, helpers and porters. A notification has also been issued to hire 63,000 employees in group D category that includes gangmen, trackmen.

Recently, the Railways issued a notification to fill 26,502 posts of loco pilot and assistant loco pilot. One of the key purpose behind this recruitment drive is Railways' commitment to ensure safety. Around 1.2 lakh positions related to safety are reportedly lying vacant.

The additional hiring of ground-level workers, which may cost Rs 4,000 crore a year, aims to strengthen safety infrastructure.

The government also relaxed norms related to the minimum qualification for its 62,907 vacancies of trackmen, helpers etc by dropping the requirement of an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) or equivalent certificate.

Earlier, the national transporter extended the upper age limit by two years for the applicants. "For the ongoing recruitment of Group C Level I and II posts, the ministry has decided to extend the relaxation in upper age limit by two years," a statement of the Rail Ministry had after aspirants hold the nationwide protest over the controversial norm.

The age limit was also been extended for reserved categories.

The ministry had also stated that questions in regional languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Odiya, Telugu,

Bangla and others will be available for candidates to take the exam.

The ministry had also decided to refund Rs 400 to non-exempted candidates who have to pay Rs 500 as examination fees. On this, several candidates have raised their concern that how Railways would refund their money without taking their bank account detail.

Exempted categories like SC/ST/divyang/ex-servicemen/women/minorities/economically backward classes will be charged Rs 250.