Indian Railways has earmarked 20 per cent vacancies ( 20734 vacancies) for apprentices as per the Apprentice Act of 2016.
IR was clarifying on news reports of apprentices (trained at railway establishments) demanding regular employment. In a statement, IR said 20 per cent was already set aside out of the 1,03,769 notified vacancies for level-1 recruitment currently under process.
IR further stated that apprentices were demanding regular employment by asking for restoration of the earlier powers given to General Managers which was discontinued in March 2017.
IR said “it may be noted that regular appointment without any open competition as being demanded by the some will be against the Constitutional provisions and GOI rules about regular recruitment. All eligible citizens of country are entitled to compete and apply for the regular jobs. Direct recruitment without any open competition is against the rules.”
“Further, as per the amendment made in Apprentice Act in 2016, every employer has to make a policy of appointment of Act Apprentices trained in their establishment. Keeping this in view, Railways has kept 20 per cent vacancies in Level 1 recruitment for such apprentices and given fair opportunity to all.”
The position of engagement of Act Apprentices as per extant rule is as follows: IR engages apprentices for providing training in their establishments. As per Section 22 (i) of Act Apprentices Act, 1961 amended on 22nd Dec, 2014 provides that, ‘Every employer shall formulate its own policy for recruiting any apprentice who has completed the period of apprenticeship training in his establishment’.
In compliance with the above, instructions have been issued by Railway Board (vide Railway Board’s letter No.E(NG)II/2016/RR-1/8 dated 21.06.2016), providing that 20 per cent of the vacancies in case of direct recruitment to posts/categories in Level-1 shall be filled by giving preference to Course Completed Act Apprentices (CCAAs) trained in Railway establishments.
During 2018, RRBs have recruited 1288 apprentices in Level-1 posts.
IR said it had issued three centralized employment notifications totalling about 1.4 lakh vacancies under three categories- non-technical popular category (NTPC), isolated and ministerial category and level-1 category.
Against these employment notifications,over 2.40 crore candidates have applied. Ministry of Railways have made requisite preparations for smooth conduct of Computer Based Test (CBT) scheduled from December 15, 2020 onwards as notified earlier.
The details of schedule of the CBTs will be uploaded on websites of RRBs in due course separately for these employment notifications, IR said.