The government has decided to withdraw the railway posts in Engineering Services Exam and Civil Services exam post its decision to introduce Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS). However, the exam for selection to Indian Railway Protection Force Service will continue as before. This information was shared by Minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
In response to Kunwar Danish Ali’s question on whether the railways has cancelled the vacancies under ESE 2020 for which stage-I (Preliminary) examination was conducted on January 5, the railway minister said, “In line with Government’s decision to introduce Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) from the next recruitment cycle, it has been decided to withdraw indents for services covered under Engineering Services Examination 2020 and Civil Services Examination 2020 except that for Indian Railway Protection Force Service (IRPFS).”
The central service recruiter, Union Public Service Commission (USPC), will now conduct the recruitment exams directly for the IRMS. However, it is not clear that when the first IRMS exam will be notified.
On December 24, the Union Cabinet had approved a major overhauling of the organisational structure of Indian Railways in which its eight services were merged into one — the Indian Railway Management Service.
It was then decided that UPSC would facilitate recruitment for the unified railway group ‘A’ service, Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS), from the next recruitment cycle which is 2020.
“Just like aspirants to the Union Public Service Commission, candidates aspiring to get into railways will have to appear for their prelims after which they will indicate their preference for IRMS under five specialities — four of them engineering specialities for ”technical” operations comprising of civil, mechanical, telecom and electrical, and one ”non-technical” speciality which will recruit officers for accounts, personnel and traffic,” Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav had said after the merger.
The Railways had written a letter to UPSC in January about the withdrawal of the posts.