TRANSPARENCY IN RAILWAY RECRUITMENT in India

    Indian Railways have revamped its recruitment process and machinery to ensure transparency in the working of Railway Recruitment Boards.

• Railways have appointed serving Railway officers of Senior Administrative Grade as head of Railway Recruitment Boards. Officers having long experience of 18 to 25 years and familiarity with rules/procedures only head these Boards. They have been able to exercise adequate control for ensuring fair and honest recruitment.
• Railway Recruitment Boards have been placed under the direct control of a newly formed ‘Railway Recruitment Control Board (RRCB)’ in the Railway Board’s office. The Chairman of the Railway Recruitment Control Board is Member Staff of the Railway Board (who is also Ex-Officio Secretary to Government of India). Additional Member (Staff) and Additional Member (Vigilance) are also members of this Board.
• A new post of Executive Director has beencreated. He works as Secretary to RRCB and oversees the day to day working of Recruitment Boards, so as to ensure that the procedures and policies formulated by the RRCB are implemented in totality.
• An innovative method of duplicate answer scripts has been introduced in written examinations. All question papers are of the objective type. While the candidate marks the answer on his answer script, the same impression gets reproduced on the duplicate answer script. First copies of all answer scripts are sent directly from the examination venue to the evaluation agency for computerised evaluation. The duplicate answer scripts (carbon copy) are sent, simultaneously, to the RRCB for cross checks on evaluation results. This ensures that the evaluation process is totally fair and there is no scope of tampering.
• Supervision in examination halls has been strengthened by deputing railway officers at each examination centre. At the same time, senior officers are deputed as ‘Town Incharges’ to oversee the work of officers deputed to each examination centre.
• The vigilance organisation is invariably advised of the examination dates and the venues, in advance. Vigilance teams are deputed to make spot checks and inquire about any case of cheating or irregularity.
• Specified seating plans, multiple question papers and a systems of accountability have been introduced to eliminate chances of copying during examinations.
• A grievance redressal machinery has been set up in Railway Board’s office, where all complaints made by the candidates are looked into. Every case is followed up with due care and seriousness.
• In order to remove subjectivity totally from Railway Recruitment Board selections, the system of interviews has been eliminated from most of the examinations. It has been replaced by a system of two tier examinations viz. a preliminary examination, followed by a final examination. This new procedure shall apply to all future recruitments.
• Group D recruitment was done so far by the Zonal Railways themselves, through a system of interviews alone. This is being entrusted now to Railway Recruitment Boards. Separate units are planned within the RRBs for this purpose. They will recruit group D staff through written examinations - which will also be on the pattern of preliminary and final examinations. This will ensure transparency in Group D recruitment as well.

Courtesy: PIB