New Delhi: Four years after the Modi government announced the ambitious merger of eight railway services into one single civil service in a bid to have a leaner bureaucracy and reduce departmentalism, the reform seems to be unravelling as a result of a crippling shortage of officers with technical expertise.
Probationers of the Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS) — created in 2019 by unifying the eight services — have expressed worries that the government is considering demerging the unified service once again into technical and non-technical services in a bid to address the purported shortage of officers with technical expertise.
As many as 40 probationers are learnt to have sent representations to the Railway Board, expressing concerns about the possible fragmentation of the IRMS.
The representations have been sent to the Railway Board with a cover letter dated 29 August, from the Director General of the Indian Railways Institute of Transport Management (IRITM) in Lucknow, where the probationers are currently undergoing training.
“The undersigned wants to bring to your kind attention concerns regarding fragmentation and dilution of the unified IRMS, which was recently created to end departmentalism in Indian Railways, into so-called technical and non-technical streams,” the individual representations of 40 probationers, which are identically-worded, state. ThePrint has seen the document.
“This would be completely antithetical to the historic reform of the Union Cabinet chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, of unification of erstwhile eight services of Indian Railways, and is against the vision of creating an efficient organisation capable of delivering upon the expectations of 21st century aspirational India,” they further say.
According to sources in the Indian Railways, the ministry is indeed considering demerging the IRMS into technical and non-technical services.
“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 told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
“Therefore, with some minor tweaks here and there, the government is thinking of going back to the earlier system wherein technical and non-technical officers are recruited separately… it is being suggested that the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) starts recruiting engineers through the Indian Engineering Services exam like before.”
“It has been felt that those who are coming in through the IRMS have a general administration outlook, and do not necessarily have the technical knowhow,” a second official said. “The ministry has suggested the possibility of a demerger. But the decision has to be made at the level of the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office).”
However, Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, told ThePrint: “There is no plan to demerge the IRMS into civil and engineering service.”
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Probationers worried
Before the merger, the railway services were divided into the non-technical civil services, which, in turn, had three branches — 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 — 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 Civil Services Examination (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 under way. The recruitment of railway officers through the IES has been stopped since 2022.
The ministry is, however, now discussing the possibility of resuming recruitment of engineers through the IES, sources said.
The discussions of a possible rollback to the earlier system have become a cause of concern for the probationers recruited in 2022 and 2023.
The basis of their worry is a letter from the railway ministry dated 12 July, which states that probationers of the IRMS, who have been recruited in 2022 and 2023, along with those who will be recruited in 2024, will now only be given training in non-technical domains. ThePrint has seen the letter.
This has led to concerns among the probationers that they will not be allowed to serve in technical posts within the railways — a move that would restrict their career prospects, and goes against their terms of employment.
Such a move would “jeopardise” the promotional avenues and career prospects of the probationers, who have been recruited under the IRMS due “to increased competition for limited posts that were meant for a smaller number of 120 to 140 officers”, the representation from the probationers reads.
“No fragmentation or dilution of the unified IRMS should be done into technical and/or non- technical streams, and the thwarting of the reform of the unified IRMS (by merging the erstwhile eight Group A services of Indian Railways) should be prevented,” the representation adds.
The probationers have also requested a meeting with the Railway Board chairperson to discuss these issues.
“The ministry has not explained why the technical training has been stopped,” a third railway official said. “They have abruptly stopped training in technical fields, and that has led to fear among probationers that their career prospects will be negatively impacted… according to them, so many of them have studied engineering, and can perform engineering tasks with proper training, but the government is simply denying them training in technical fields.”
‘Widespread confusion’
While the probationers believe that demerging the services would harm their career prospects, several serving officials believe that the merger, and the lack of clarity regarding it, has led to a complete organisational breakdown within the railways.
“The railways are an extremely technical sector. It is a nightmare for the railways to work without engineers,” a fourth serving official said. “There is a massive backlog because in 2020 and 2021, no officers were recruited, and in 2022 and 2023, no engineers have been recruited… we have now reached a situation wherein on the ground, there is no junior-level staff for technical jobs, and that is having an impact on safety as well.”
However, the first official quoted above said the merger could not take off because the reform has been “scuttled” from within the railways.
According to the official, earlier, an internal presentation was made in the railway ministry to induct engineers with technical knowhow under a Bharatiya Rail Technical Entry Scheme. Students were to be inducted in the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya in Gujarat on the basis of their Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) score, and then given a degree in railways engineering along with training under this scheme.
“The model would have ensured that a cadre of officers who are specifically trained in railway engineering and are given a degree and training by the government itself would have been available to handle the technical aspects of the railways,” the official said. “However, the model has been junked as officers from the engineering services want to go back to the older system wherein engineers are recruited through the IES.”
The official further explained that “one of the major reasons for the merger of the services was to end departmentalism within the railways, but even now, this thinking is very prevalent”.
“Officers of the engineering services feel that their service is being threatened through this reform,” the official added.
Officers of the engineering services have communicated to the railway minister that their cadres are demoralised due to the merger, and that is affecting safety provisions in the railways too, sources added.
The merger has been mired in confusion ever since it was first announced in 2019. In December 2022, the government notified a separate exam for the IRMS, for which only those with engineering, commerce and accountancy degrees were eligible. This was done to ensure that those who were recruited in the railways were not “generalists”, and had technical expertise, sources said. According to the notification, 150 IRMS officers were to be recruited through the new examination.
However, just two months after the notification, it was rolled back because there was no clarity on the syllabus and curriculum for the exam.
Asked about the demerger, a UPSC official, who did not wish to be named, said there is no clarity on the IRMS exam. “We will conduct the exam depending on the requirements of the ministry. If they ask for recruitment through two exams, we will do it.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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