Vacancy/Eligibility criteria for group ‘D’ Technical posts

Vacancy/Eligibility criteria for group ‘D’ Technical posts

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5107

TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.04.2025

VACANCY/ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR GROUP ‘D’ TECHNICAL POSTS

5107 MS. PRANITI SUSHILKUMAR SHINDE

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

i) whether the Government is aware that the eligibility criteria for Group D technical posts in the Railways have been lowered from requiring an ITI certification to just a 10th pass qualification, potentially impacting the technical expertise of recruited personnel;

ii) if so, the reasons therefor;

iii) whether the Government has assessed its impact on the safety and efficiency of railway operations and if so, the details thereof; and

iv) whether the Government intends to revise the eligibility criteria to ensure that technical posts require ITI-qualified candidates while non-technical Group D posts continue with the 10th pass requirement in order to maintain safety and quality standards in railway operations and if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND
ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (d) The nature of job in Level 1 posts (erstwhile Group ‘D’ posts) is to provide assistance to skilled technicians. It also serves partially as a feeding cadre to the category of Technicians. The technical expertise expected of Level 1 officials is that of a general nature. Level 1 employees learn the skills of the trades and are promoted to the grade of skilled technicians.

Sixth Central Pay Commission had recommended the upgradation of all the Group ‘D’ posts to Group ‘C’ posts with minimum educational qualification for future recruitments being matriculation (10th pass) or ITI. The same was implemented and the minimum educational qualification for all Group ‘D’ posts was fixed as 10th pass or ITI or equivalent or National Apprenticeship Certificate (NAC) granted by National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT).

Subsequently in the year 2017, it was decided by the Railway Board to raise the entry qualification of above Level-1 (erstwhile Group ‘D’) posts in the technical departments to 10th pass plus NAC granted by NCVT or 10th pass plus ITI.

However, in view of the experience of the previous recruitments and public demand, the issue of minimum educational qualification has been revisited by the Railway Board and it was felt desirable to keep the educational qualification as 10th pass or ITI or equivalent or National Apprenticeship Certificate (NAC) granted by NCVT for all future open market recruitments in Level-1 in Railways. It has been done as the talent pool available from 10th pass candidates is larger and has yielded good results.

Further, occurrence and filling up of vacancies is a continuous process on Indian Railways considering its size, spatial distribution and criticality of operation. Adequate and suitable manpower is provided to cater to the regular operations, changes in technology, mechanisations and innovative practices. The vacancies are filled up primarily by placement of indents by Railways with Recruitment agencies as per operational and technological requirements.

After easing of restrictions imposed on account of COVID 19, two major examinations involving more than 2.37 crore candidates have been conducted successfully during 2020 to 2022.

Based on these exams, 130581 candidates have been recruited in Railways.

The RRB examinations are quite technical in nature entailing large scale mobilization of men and resources and training of manpower. Railway overcame all these challenges and successfully conducted the recruitment in a transparent manner following all laid down guidelines. No instance of paper leakage or similar malpractice has occurred during the entire process.

Recruitment done in Indian Railways during 2004-2005 to 2013-2014 vis-à-vis during 2014-2015 to 2023-2024 is given as under:-

* Including Level-1 and security related posts.

Further, as a system improvement, the Ministry of Railways has introduced a system of publishing annual calendar from 2024 for recruitment to various categories of Group ‘C’ posts. The introduction of annual calendar will benefit the aspirants in the following manner:

• More opportunities for candidates;
• Opportunities to those becoming eligible every year;
• Certainty of exams;
• Faster Recruitment process, Training and Appointments

Accordingly, eleven Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for 102016 (Safety-73569, Non-Safety 28447) vacancies were notified during January 2024 to March 2025 for filling up of posts of Assistant Loco Pilots, Technicians, Sub-Inspectors, Constables in Railway Protection Force (RPF), Junior Engineers (JEs)/ Depot Material Superintendent (DMS)/ Chemical & Metallurgical Assistant (CMA), Paramedical Categories, Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate), Non-Technical Popular Categories (Under-Graduate), Ministerial & Isolated Categories and Level-1.

For five notifications, Computer Based Tests (CBTs) have been completed in two phases from 25.11.2024 to 30.12.2024 and 02.03.2025 to 18.03.2025. The details are as under:-

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