As per Apprentice Act in 2016, Indian Railways has reserved 20% vacancies (i.e. 20,734 vacancies) for apprentices in 1,03,769 notified vacancies for level-1 recruitment currently under process.

Recently there have been news reports that the trained apprentices at Railway establishments are demanding regular appointment.

Apprentices are demanding this by asking for restoration of the earlier powers given to GMs which was discontinued in Mar 2017.

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% vacancies in Level 1 recruitment for such apprentices and give fair opportunity to all.

Position of engagement of Act Apprentices as per extant rule, Railways 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 vide Railway Board’s letter No.E(NG)II/2016/RR-1/8 dated 21.06.2016, providing that 20% 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. Further, 20% vacancies (i.e. 20,734 vacancies) have been kept reserved for apprentices in 1,03,769 notified vacancies for level-1 recruitment currently under process.

It may be noted that RRBs has issued three centralized employment notifications (CEN). CEN 01/2019 (NTPC categories), CEN 03/2019 (Isolated and ministerial categories) and RRC-01/2019 (Level-1 categories) have been issued for a total of about 1.4 lakh vacancies for various categories of staff by Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs). Against these employment notifications, more than 2.40 crore candidates have applied. Ministry of Railways have made requisite preparations for smooth conduct of Computer Based Test (CBT) which is scheduled from 15th Dec. 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.

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DJN/MKV