Why 'locals' are upset over Indian Railways' recruitment drive

Locals are allegedly being bypassed by the Indian Railways to fill up 51 vacancies for the post of assistant loca pilots (ALPs) in Southern Railway and the jobs are being allotted to candidates selected by the Railways Recruitment Board (RRB) of the Gorakpur-based North Eastern Railway. This is being done even as 60 candidates picked by the RRB of Chennai are waiting in line in a stand-by panel to be placed in these jobs.

As per rules, vacancies notified for Southern Railway should be filled by candidates only from that particular zone (There are 21 railway zones in India). Madurai MP Su Venkatesan, who has taken up the issue with the Union Railway ministry, and members of railway unions, have alleged that the Indian Railways are violating their own rules and depriving local candidates of their employment opportunities.

The Background

The RRB had invited applications to fill up ALP posts in 2018 through the Centralized Employment Notification (CEN). A person from any part of India can apply to any one of the RRBs and if the candidate is selected, he or she should be posted only in the RRB panel, in which the candidate has applied. Though the applications are called through the CEN, each RRB has its own cut-off marks.

While the RRB/Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh invited applications for 1,681 vacancies along with 168 for ex-servicemen under North Eastern Railway, the RRB/Chennai in Tamil Nadu notified only 761 vacancies, along with 77 vacancies for ex-servicemen under Southern Railway.

The first stage of exams conducted in August-September 2018 was followed by the second stage in January 2019. The results were announced in July 2021. Fifty-four candidates who had applied with RRB/Gorakhpur have been referred to 51 vacant posts in RRB/Chennai, while about 60 candidates who had applied with RRB/Chennai are still cooling their heels in the standby panel.

What’s more the candidates who are in the waiting list have higher cut-off marks than the Gorakhpur candidates.

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Stirring up ill-will

Su Venkatesan, an MP from Madurai raised this issue a couple of days ago by writing a letter to the Union Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw. He said, “The vacancies of Southern Railway should go only to the RRB candidates of Chennai even if they belong to other states as per the notification and should not be illegally thrown open to RRB/Gorakhpur.”

Further, he issued a statement in which he pointed out that according to the reply submitted by Ashwini Vaishaw, about 60 per cent vacancies in the technician category in the Southern Railway have gone to candidates who wrote exams in Hindi and 13 per cent of ALP jobs have gone to Hindi-speaking candidates.

“Bringing 54 candidates from Gorakhpur to Southern Railway in ALP category will definitely stir up ill-will among south Indians apart from affecting the employment opportunities of standby candidates in RRB/Chennai,” he alleged.

R Elangovan, vice president, Dakshin Railway Employees Union said that even if a candidate from one railway scored a higher cut-off mark than the candidate from another railway zone, he or she cannot be posted in the other railway zone. They should be posted only in the railway zone where they had applied for.

“When the vacancies for the 51 posts come up, the candidates who are waiting in the standby panel should be first appointed. But since there are no sufficient vacancies in the North Eastern Railway, they have been brought here. The Railways is acting as if no one will oppose this kinds of action. However, when it came to our notice, we started opposing this move,” said Elangovan.

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A politically sensitive issue

One of the loco pilots in Chennai told The Federal that though the ALP is a transferable job but it is important to know if the rules have been followed. “The RRB has its own guidelines. The RRB/Gorakhpur simply cannot bring the candidates from the north to Southern Railway. They know it is a politically sensitive issue,“ he said.

“If they have violated any rule, it should be condemned. But if they have changed their rules, then we must put pressure on the railways to correct that rule, so that the employment opportunities in a particular zone should go to the sons of the soil from that zone,” he said.

According to Southern Railway Employees Sangh general secretary PS Suryaprakasam inducting people who don’t know the local language in Southern Railway in Tamil Nadu has led to a lot of accidents in the past.

“In Tamil Nadu, the General Railway Signals are mostly given either in English or in Tamil. Since many of the loco pilots from the north don’t know either of the languages, a lot of accidents have happened in the past,” he claimed, adding that it is necessary to appoint local candidates especially in such categories.