Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan has raised objection to Indian Railways filling up 51 vacancies in the posts of assistant loco pilots (ALPs) in Southern Railway with candidates selected through Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) of North Eastern Railway.
In a letter addressed to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mr. Venkatesan said that the move had been made even as over 60 candidates were waiting in standby panel of the RRB-Chennai. While the RRB-Gorakhpur notified 1,681 vacancies along with 168 for ex-servicemen, the RRB-Chennai had notified only 761 vacancies along with 77 for ex-servicemen.
As per rules, vacancies notified for Southern Railway should be filled by candidates only from that particular region.
Already, in the category of technicians in Southern Railway, 60% of the vacancies had been garnered by candidates who wrote exam in Hindi and 13% posts of ALPs had gone to Hindi-speaking candidates as per the statement of the Railway Minister. “Bringing 51 candidates from Gorakhpur to Southern Railway in ALP category will definitely ignite ill feelings among south Indians apart from affecting the employment opportunities of standby candidates in the RRB-Chennai,” he said.
He also drew the attention of the Minister to the fact that the cut-off marks of the Gorakhpur candidates were incidentally lower than that of the standby candidates in Southern Railway.
Recently two candidates in electrical category II and one candidate in mechanical category I were placed in the replacement panel from the standby panel and given appointment in Southern Railway on August 10.
Mr. Venkatesan sought the Railway Minister’s intervention in stopping Southern Railway from filling 51 vacancies of ALPs from out of Gorakhpur panel.
Meanwhile, Dakshin Railway Employees’ Union has condemned the move to fill vacancies in Southern Railway from outside the region. Its Madurai divisional secretary R. Sankaranarayanan said that the railway was violating its own rules and it was illegal. It would deprive local candidates of their employment opportunity, he said.
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