Railways has provided big relief to officers recruited under the earlier unified Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS) by offering them three sub-cadres to choose from. The recruits have been facing uncertainty after the government rolled back the new system of recruitment under IRMS and restored the old system of recruitments through two separate examinations.
After the recruitment under the new system was started in 2022, over a hundred recruits have been selected through the unified test. The railways has now offered them three sub-cadres to choose one. These are IRMS (Accounts), IRMS (Personnel) and IRMS (Traffic). The move was necessary as those selected under IRMS don’t get a chance to choose their sub cadre now; they might have to face
the problem during promotion in future.
After the government’s rollback, railway officers are now to be recruited under two different categories – one under the Civil Services Examination (CSE) for non- technical posts and the other under the Engineering Services Examination (ESE) for technical posts. This was the practice before 2019 when the Cabinet decided to club eight railway services into one and created IRMS. The IRMS has now been included into the Engineering Services Examination.
As per sources, in the first year of recruitment under IRMS in 2022, only 58 candidates out of a total of 150 selected candidates joined railways and are now undergoing training. Similarly, another 150 candidates were selected each in 2023 and 2024 whose joining process is still on.
Also Read: Centre rolls back 2019 merger policy for recruitment of railway officers
Also Read: After demerger, Railway notifies 8 services as sub cadre
