Indian Railways to hire 4 lakh people in the next two years

Union Minister Piyush Goyal announced on Wednesday that Indian Railways will provide over 400,000 jobs in the next two years.  The recruitment will include the new provision of 10 per cent quota for upper caste economically poor section that will translate to more than 20,000 jobs for people in this category. The recruitment cycle that will be rolled out in two phases will wrap up by July-August, 2021.

The announcement has come despite over 150,000 aspirants still awaiting employment in the railways, following tests conducted in 2018. However, in a press conference, Goyal ensured that the national transporter will provide jobs for these 150,000 applicants as well.

At present, Indian Railways has a sanctioned strength of 15.06 lakh, out of which 2.82 lakh posts are still vacant. The railway has a working staff of 12.23 lakh personnel currently. Besides, over 100,000 people are going to retire by 2021, hence the railways has decided to do mass recruitment soon, said Goyal.

The first phase of recruitment for 1.31 lakh posts would begin between February and March this year, and according to reservation policy of the government, around 19,715 jobs shall be reserved for Scheduled Castes, 9,857 for Schedule Tribes and 35,485 posts will be reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

The second phase of recruitment for 99,000 posts will be initiated in May-June 2020 and will end by July-August, 2021.

Further, the Minister also announced the extension of 22 train services across India that will help in the increasing the proficiency of railways and bringing development by providing better services to the people.

(Edited by Mansi Jaiswal)

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