PALAKKAD: The Railways, in a bid to tide over the shortage of qualified staff, has invited applications from retired employees below the age of 65 years for re-engagement to the same job they had served during their service period. Earlier, during emergency situations, re-engagement of retired employees used to be made, that too up to 62 years. Now, it has been enhanced to 65 years.
The Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and Madurai divisions and also the Construction Organisation in Ernakulam have called for applications from retired employees through the Southern Railway website.
Around 200 posts have been identified in 36 categories under the division’s jurisdiction. The last date for submitting the applications is January 19.
The vacancies identified under Palakkad division include loco pilots - 20, goods guard - 18, station master - 10, office superintendent - 10, track maintainer - 25 and technician - signal - 18. “There is a shortage of railway staff. The new recruitment is a long-drawn-out process. Since our priority is the safety of passengers, the Railways has decided to re-engage retired employees,” said T Rajkumar, additional divisional railway manager.
“The move to re-engage retired staff is part of the Bibek Debroy Committee recommendations to appoint employees on contract basis. It had said only supervisory staff need to be made permanent. As far as loco staff is concerned, they are overburdened with work. The standing committee report on the Railways has stated that there were 24,000 vacancies of loco pilots as on April 2016 which is 25 per cent. Naturally, existing staff, when they fail to get the required leave, will opt for voluntary retirement which has also accentuated the situation,” said a member of the All-India Loco Running Staff Association.