New Delhi: Almost five years after merging eight railway services into a single civil service in a bid to have a leaner bureaucracy and reduce departmentalism in the railways, the Centre is officially considering a U-turn on the ambitious reform.
As first reported by ThePrint in August, the Ministry of Railways has now decided that as opposed to the cabinet decision taken in 2019, recruitment for the railway services will be made through two different examinations—the Civil Services Examination (CSE) and the Engineering Services Examination (ESE) for non-technical and technical services, respectively.
In a 5 October letter to the secretary, Department of Telecommunication, which was marked “most immediate”, the railway ministry stated, “Ministry of Railways has been recruiting officers to the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) through Civil Service Examination – 2022 onwards. Now, it has been decided by the Ministry of Railways that recruitment to the IRMS will be made through the CSE and ESE.”
The Ministry of Telecommunications is the nodal ministry for the ESE.
“In this regard, the DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training) vide its Office Memorandum (OM) dated 5th October, 2024 have conveyed their in-principle approval to this proposal,” the letter, accessed by ThePrint, further said.
In its OM, the DoPT has said that it is granting the approval to the proposal “considering the unique requirement of both technical and non-technical manpower in the Ministry of Railways”.
ThePrint had first reported that a demerger of the Indian Railway Managerial Services (IRMS) was being considered by the government as a result of a crippling shortage of technical service officers in the railways after the merger.
“The ministry is of the view that the officers they are getting through the IRMS are mostly generalists, and they are not cut out for core engineering operations,” an official had told ThePrint.
However, the Ministry of Railways had categorically denied that any such proposal was on the table.
Dilip Kumar, executive director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, had told ThePrint: “There is no plan to demerge the IRMS into civil and engineering service.”
In its letter Saturday, the railway ministry has asked the telecommunications ministry to include the requirement of technical officers for the railways for the ESE to be held in 2025. Since the notification for ESE 2025 has already been issued, the railway ministry has asked that its requirement of 225 engineers as technical officers in the railways be added to the notification as an addendum.
“In order to provide ample opportunity to the candidates for applying, it is proposed that the last date of submission of application may be suitably extended and notified in the UPSC’s website,” the letter states.
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Railway bureaucracy split
The rollback of the ambitious reform has split the railway bureaucracy. While a certain section believes that the segregation of recruitment is necessary for efficiency in the railways, another section believes it will dampen the morale of railway officers.
“It is effectively a rollback. Now, the services just have a common name, i.e. IRMS, but in effect, they are all separate again,” a senior railway official said on condition of anonymity. “But this was the need of the hour since the railways is having a crippling shortage of technical officers since the services were merged…It was an ill-thought-out decision to begin with, done without improper consultation.”
However, others are concerned about the impact the rollback of the reform may have on the officers recruited under a common IRMS.
“They have already recruited two batches of officers under a common IRMS. What will happen to them?” a second railway official said. “Moreover, the merger was a cabinet decision. Has the cabinet approved its rollback? Everything is mired in confusion. It would be a major loss of face since this reform was touted as one of the biggest reforms in the railways, and now, the government is taking a complete U-turn.”
The technicalities
Before the merger, the railway services were divided into the non-technical civil services, which, in turn, had three branches—the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) and Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS)—and the technical engineering services. The latter had five branches—the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRES), Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE), Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE) and Indian Railway Stores Services (IRSS).
Officers for both the technical and non-technical services were recruited through the UPSC. However, while the non-technical civil service recruitments were made through the CSE, along with other civil services like the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), the technical service recruitments were made through the Indian Engineering Services (IES) exam.
However, in a bid to bring an end to departmentalism in the railways, the government had merged the eight services into a single IRMS, whose officers were recruited by the UPSC through the CSE.
While the reform was announced in 2019, the government did not recruit any officers to the railways in 2020 and 2021. Since 2022, the government has resumed recruitment to the railways in the unified IRMS through the CSE.
Two batches of the IRMS—2022 and 2023—have already been recruited, while the recruitment for the third batch through the CSE 2024 is underway. Recruitment of railway officers through the IES has been stopped since 2022.
In its letter Saturday, the railways has proposed that officers for civil, mechanical, electrical, signal and stores now be done through the ESE again.
“An early action in this regard will be highly appreciated,” it states.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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Generalists have absolutely no place in a technical organisation like the railways. It’s the engineers – mechanical, electrical, civil and electronics – who ensure that the railways operate as expected on a day to day basis. They are the ones responsible for smooth functioning of the vast network.
The railways must stop recruitment through the UPSC CSE. The generalists have absolutely no idea on how to manage and run a highly technical service like the railways.
The IES must be the only route of recruitment for the officer cadre of the Railways.