(a) the total number of posts of safety cadres lying vacant in the Railways;
(b) the number of posts of drivers out of them;
(c) whether the Government proposes to take any steps for filling these vacancies; and
(d) If so, the time by which it is likely to be completed?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)
(a) to (d) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 910 BY SHRI RAVINDER KUSHAWAHA TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 20.12.2017 REGARDING VACANT POSTS
(a) & (b) The number of posts lying vacant in safety cadres over all Zonal Railways is 1,28,942 (Provisional) as on 01.04.2017. The number of vacant posts of all loco running categories including drivers is 17,457 (Provisional) as on 01.04.2017.
(c) No direct recruitment is made for the post of Drivers / Loco Pilots through Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs). In this Cadre, the element of Direct Recruitment is at the stage of Assistant Loco Pilots (ALPs).
All out efforts are made to fill up the vacancies expeditiously by the RRBs which are regularly providing panels of successful candidates. During the last five years, a total of 50,463 candidates have been empanelled for the post of Assistant Loco Pilot (under direct recruitment Quota) through RRBs. Fresh recruitment for the post of ALPs is also scheduled in 2017-18.
(d) Direct recruitment to Group ‘C’ posts on Railways involves many stages. This includes objective type written examination followed by Aptitude/Skill test and Document Verification. Every stage of written examination takes around 3-4 months which includes notices issued to the candidates which require about 3 weeks. In conventional printed question paper and Optical Mark Reader (OMR) sheet based exams, the complete recruitment process takes about 1½ to 2 years.
Recently, the system of ‘Online Applications and ‘Computer Based Tests (CBTs)’ has been introduced in recruitment for Group ‘C’ posts by RRBs which is being tested through various pilot projects. It is expected that with the full scale implementation of Online Application and CBTs initiatives, it would be possible to complete the recruitment in a shorter time.
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