Congress on Centre's nod to railway services demerger: First Announce, Second Think

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh cited a report stating Railways will recruit via separate exams: Civil Services for non-technical and Engineering Services for technical posts.

In Short

• Congress criticises Centre's rollback of railway services merger.
• Jairam Ramesh calls the move 'Railway Deforms' not reforms
• Rollback due to lack of technical skills in recruits, says Ramesh

The Congress on Sunday slammed the Centre after it reportedly rolled back the merger of eight railway services to create one, and said the "First Announce, Second Think" mentality of Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to spell danger to the country's institutions.

There was no official word from the government on the reported move.

Congress general secretary (In-charge, Communications) Jairam Ramesh cited a media report which claimed that almost five years after merging the eight services into a single civil service, the Ministry of Railways has now decided that recruitment will be made through two different examinations -- the Civil Services Examination (CSE) for non-technical posts and Engineering Services Examination (ESE) for technical.

In a post on X, Ramesh said, "This was not a case of Railway Reforms but actually a case of Railway Deforms."

"Five years ago, the non-biological PM's Government merged eight railway services into the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) and discontinued recruitment through the Engineering Services Examination," he said.

On October 5, 2024, the government rolled back its decision and will now continue to recruit through two separate examinations, one for Civil Services and one for Engineering Services, he claimed.

"The rollback was motivated by concern that too many officers coming in were generalists and lacked the technical and engineering skills required," Ramesh said.

"This FAST mentality of the non-biological PM - First Announce, Second Think - continues to spell danger to our institutions especially," the Congress leader said.

The railways are fundamentally an engineering system, and the deliberate attempt to forget this fact in the rush to standardise all recruitment was foolhardy, Ramesh said.