Vice-Chairman of the Telangana State Planning Board B. Vinod Kumar requested Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to scrap the concept of National Level Eligibility Test for the recruitment of Group C and D category posts in Railways and take up recruitment zone-wise with agencies like RRB providing 95% reservation to local candidates.
In a letter addressed to the Railway Minister, Mr. Vinod Kumar said on Saturday that the destructing visuals aired on the digital media on protests against the recruitment of posts were causing extreme heartburn and these incidents could have been avoided had the previous Railways Minister Piyush Goyal considered suggestions made by him regarding changes in the railway recruitment process in the country.
As an MP representing Karimnagar parliamentary constituency during 2014-19, he said that he and other colleague MPs from Telangana had met Mr. Goyal and cautioned him about the repercussions of the national eligibility test for Group C and D posts in Railways. However, Mr. Goyal did not heed to our requests and the ongoing incidents are the effect of the lopsided policy, he said.
Further, Mr. Vinod Kumar wrote that they had resisted the idea of a NLET for the recruitment of Group C and D category posts before Mr. Goyal and had opined that recruitment for such posts should be done by zonal recruitment agencies like RRBs with 95% reservation to local candidates. He stated that they had also suggested that all posts must be calculated at zonal/divisional level and employment opportunities should be provided to only locals.
Besides, conducting centralised exams for local candidates is irrational and is detrimental to the rights of the backward sections of Telangana. Northern States such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh used to get the lion’s share of Group C and D jobs in Railways all through. Posts like gangmen, linemen and other Class IV jobs were being given those from northern States although they do not know local languages, denying the opportunities to local people, he alleged
He requested the Railway Minister to redesign the examination process for Group C and D posts to benefit the local unemployed youth. Further, he also sought change in the medium of examinations to local/regional language for the posts and conduct separate exam at regional level.
