RRB : Railways reserve 20% vacancies for apprentices

Indian Railways on Thursday said that it has reserved 20 per cent vacancies for the apprentices in 1,03,769 notified vacancies for the level-1 recruitment.

According to the official release, against these employment notifications, more than 2.40 crore candidates have applied.

Recently there have been news reports that trained apprentices at railway establishments are demanding regular appointments by asking for the restoration of the earlier powers given to general managers that were discontinued in March 2017, a statement by the railways said.

Before March 2017, a general manager could make a regular appointment of a trained apprentice without an open competition.

“It may be noted that regular appointments without any open competition as demanded by some will be against the constitutional provisions and GOI (government of India) rules about regular recruitment,” the IR said.

“All eligible citizens of the country are entitled to compete and apply for regular jobs. Direct recruitment without any open competition is against the rules,” it added.

Further, as per the amendment made in the Apprentice Act in 2016, every employer has to make a policy of appointing apprentices trained in their establishment, the railways said.

“As per Apprentice Act in 2016, Indian Railways has reserved 20 per cent vacancies (i.e. 20,734 vacancies) for apprentices in 1,03,769 notified vacancies for level-1 recruitment currently under process,” the release stated.

Railways said that “all eligible citizens of the country are entitled to compete and apply for the regular jobs. Direct recruitment without any open competition is against the rules.”

This comes after reports that the trained apprentices at Railway establishments were demanding regular appointments. As per the release, Railways engages apprentices for providing training in their establishments.

“Further, as per the amendment made in the Apprentice Act in 2016, every employer has to make a policy of appointment of Act Apprentices trained in their establishment. Keeping this in view, Railways has kept 20 per cent vacancies in Level 1 recruitment for such apprentices and give a fair opportunity to all,” the release stated.

“As per Section 22 (i) of Act Apprentices Act, 1961 amended on 22nd Dec 2014 provides that, ‘Every employer shall formulate its own policy for recruiting any apprentice who has completed the period of apprenticeship training in his establishment,” Railways said.

During 2018, Railway Recruitment Boards have recruited 1288 apprentices in Level-1 posts, Railways said.