Railways: Vendor seeks job applications on caste lines

Netizens lashed out at the Indian Railways on Thursday after one of the latter's catering vendor sought job application from candidates belonging to a particular caste.

This has forced the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which manages railway catering, to pull up the catering contractor.

Brindavan Food Products sought applications from 100 male candidates for three posts: train catering manager, base kitchen manager and store manager.

It said that candidates should belong to "Agrawal Vaish Community" and have "good family background", besides the educational qualification of "10+2" in its recruitment advertisement.

As the advertisement went viral on social media, public wrath forced the Railways to step in.

IRCTC said that the company has removed the human resource personnel who posted the advertisement after severe reprimand.

"Serious view is taken by the IRCTC and the contractor has been asked to refrain giving notice on caste lines but to recruit suitable persons belonging to any caste/creed/religion or region. It has been confirmed by the contractor to the IRCTC that the HR manager responsible for the advertisement has since been removed from the job," a senior official of the railways said.

Lashing out at the advertisement, netizens said that caste cannot be a yardstick for a candidate for a job.