New Delhi: The Ministry of Railways has initiated action against a private agency for issuing a fake recruitment notice for over 5,000 vacancies in the railways.
The ministry had issued a clarification Sunday which said the online recruitment notice for 5,285 vacancies was fake.
“Railways has initiated its investigation and is going to take strictest action as per law against the above agency/persons involved in the above matter,” a statement released by the ministry noted.
The advertisement put out by an organisation named Avestran Infotech said the vacancies were available “in eight categories on outsourcing basis in Indian Railways on 11 years contract”. Applicants were asked to deposit an online fee of Rs 750 by 10 September.
The ministry’s statement also said, “It may be informed to all that Advertisement for any Railway recruitment is always done by Indian Railways ONLY. No private agency has been authorised to do the same. The said issuance of said advertisement in question is illegal.”
The ministry also simultaneously tweeted from its official Twitter handle.
Clarification about an advertisement by a private agency in a newspaper regarding alleged recruitment in eight categories of posts on Indian Railways.
https://t.co/9FmPyOE5wa pic.twitter.com/qLOAv688Qb
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) August 9, 2020
Also read: Railway officers resist ‘unilateral, shocking’ decision to end posting of bungalow peons
Legal action against company
Vacancies in Indian Railways are filled up by giving wide publicity through Centralised Employment Notifications, the statement said. These are first published in the Employment News/Rozgar Samachar and an “indicative notice” is given in the national and local newspapers.
The statement also said that “recruitment of various categories of Group ‘C’ and erstwhile Group ‘D’ posts on Indian Railways is presently catered to by 21 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and 16 Railway Recruitment Cell (RRC) only and not by any other agency”.
“We are taking a legal action against the company. The advertisement was published in an edition of Dainik Jagran. They have apologised to us, but this is illegal,” a railways spokesperson told ThePrint on anonymity.
Also read: For these top Railways bosses, the train of jobs doesn’t stop even after retirement