Indian Railways to freeze all recruitment other than in the safety category

With revenue taking a hit severely due to the coronavirus pandemic, Indian Railways has decided to implement strict austerity measures by stopping the creation of new posts and non-essential recruitment.

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The Railway Board, in its letter to general managers of zones, on Tuesday asked them to freeze new posts' creation except in the 'safety category'.

"Reviewing of posts created in last two years and if recruitment has not been done against the posts, reviewing the same for surrendering," the letter said.

The Board also asked the zones to surrender 50% of existing vacancies other than in the safety category.

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However, this freeze will not affect the ongoing recruitment for filling vacant posts of technical and non-technical posts announced in 2018 for which the Railways already completed the process of recruiting 64,317 assistant loco pilots and technicians and started dispatching appointment letters.

For the recruitment of 35,208 non-technical posts, the Railways is planning to conduct examinations after normalisation of the situation following the Covid-19 crisis.

The Railways board has already instructed zonal railways to take steps to cut down any excess and wasteful expenditure in the organisation including reducing ticket booking counters and reducing the cost on organisation.

Earlier, the Railway Finance Commissioner Manjula Rangarajan, in a letter to General Managers of Zones, suggested a number of measures to reduce expenditure including cutting down of passenger reservation system (PRS) counters and redeployment of Enquiry-Cum-Reservation Clerks due to the decrease in the over-the-counter reservation.

The Railways also suggested zonal offices to ensure annual General Manager inspection, a “silent and low key affair with minimum number of staff required.”

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Following the nationwide lockdown, the Railways suspended its passenger trains services from March 24 and only freight trains transporting essential commodities operated.

At present, besides freight trains, the Railways is operating 100 pairs of regular passenger trains and 15 pairs of special Rajdhani trains.