Re-engagement of retired employees in Railways – Rajya Sabha QA

Re-engagement of retired employees in Railways – Rajya Sabha QA

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 610
ANSWERED ON 07.02.2025

RE-ENGAGEMENT OF RETIRED EMPLOYEES IN RAILWAYS

610. SHRI A.A. RAHIM:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

(a) the number of retired employees who have been re-engaged by the Railways in the last three years;

(b) the number of vacant posts remain unfilled by new recruits during the same period; and

(c) the criteria used to determine the necessity of re-engaging retired staff instead of hiring qualified young candidates?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND
ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (c) : Occurrence and filling up of vacancies is a continuous process on Indian Railways considering its size, spatial distribution and criticality of operation. Adequate and suitable manpower is provided to cater to the regular operations, changes in technology, mechanization and innovative practices. The vacancies are filled up primarily by placement of indents by Railways with Recruitment agencies as per operational and technological requirements.

After easing of restrictions imposed on account of COVID 19, two major examinations involving more than 2.37 crore candidates had been conducted successfully during 2020 to 2022.

Based on these exams, 130581 candidates have been recruited in Railways.

The RRB examinations are quite technical in nature entailing large scale mobilization of men and resources and training of manpower. Railway overcame all these challenges and successfully conducted the recruitment in a transparent manner following all laid down guidelines. No instance of paper leakage or similar malpractice has occurred during the entire process.

Recruitment done in Indian Railways during 2004-2014 vis-à-vis during 2014-2024 is given as under:-

Further, as system improvement, the Ministry of Railways has introduced a system of publishing the annual calendar from 2024 for recruitment to various categories of Group ‘C’ post. The introduction of the annual calendar will benefit the aspirants in the following manner:

• More opportunities for candidates;
• Opportunities to those becoming eligible every year;
• Certainty of exams;
• Faster Recruitment process, Training and Appointments

Paramedical Categories, Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) and Non-Technical Popular Categories (Under-Graduate), Ministerial & Isolated Categories and Level-1.

For four notifications, Computer Based Tests (CBTs) have been completed from 25.11.2024 to 30.12.2024. The details are as under:-

However, sometime in order to meet exigencies, retired Railway employees are re-engaged against the vacant posts temporarily based on competency, experience etc. to ensure smooth progress of the developmental and other works.