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UPSC to conduct exclusive exam for Railways
Why in news?
- The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) will be conducting an exclusive examination for recruitment of officers to handle specialised services in the newly created Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) following unification of eight different Railway services. It will happen in the next recruitment circle of 2021.
More in news
- Information on Cadre Requirement:
(1) No of Posts: UPSC will be given information about requirement of cadre in various wings for the services, engineering or otherwise & the number of posts will be notified accordingly.
(a) For Example: it could convey to UPSC the need of 200 officers with 20each engineers in civil, electrical, mechanical/stores & electronics, and the fifth will be for general service for traffic, accounts and personnel wings.
(2) Mains Examination: Candidates from engineering will have to take the main examination on their specialised domain course and not any other subject.
- Reasons behind move:
(1) “Departmentalism”: Objective behind the massive restructuring of IR’s management is to remove the “departmentalism” culture which has seeped all the way up to Railway Board and ensure there is “one service and officers from one batch should get promotion in on go” and not as has been happening thus far.
(2) Equal Opportunity: The 350-odd officers joining Railway service annually will all have an equal opportunity of reaching the top posts of Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) and above, including General Managers, as well as to the Railway Board.
- New benchmarks:
(1) Few Evaluated: Till now, only those chosen to become 34 DRMs each year based on their UPSC marks & date of birth had chance to reach higher posts, with the rest not even evaluated.
(2) Benchmarking the Performance:
(a) For IRMS, performance & personal integrity for all those joining service based on their 15-year tenure will be benchmarked by a group of 3 senior officers.
(b) In this manner, the thinking is that the best of the officers will rise in the ranks to the top management positions.
(c) While specialised engineering will continue to be relevant, for the top posts, everyone, irrespective of the department, will get a chance at a high level they should be able to tackle any situation.
Sources
The Hindu