Committed to recruit divyangjan against PwBD quota: Railways

The Railways on Monday said that it has a clear commitment to recruit divyangjan against the posts identified for them as per the prescribed quota.

"Candidates can give their grievances and it will be examined carefully and expeditiously. The recruitment process is still underway and more posts for persons with benchmark disabilities (PwBD) would come up for an appointment in the coming weeks. Under no circumstances will any vacancy for divyangjan be filled by any other categories," the Railways said in a statement.

In certain circumstances, where the vacancies of PwBDs are not filled up, the same is carried forward to the next recruitment cycle or notification, he said.

Since October 23, several divyangjan and their supporters had staged a sit-in protest near Mandi House in the national capital against perceived irregularities in the filling up of posts reserved for PwBD in the recent Level-1 recruitment exercise of the Railways.

The Railways had issued a centralised recruitment notification in February 2018 for around 63,000 posts on different Railways. This notification also included PwBD.

Subsequently, based on the provisions of the revised PwBD Act that mandated 4 per cent reservation for PwBD categories, including newly introduced multi disability category, an additional window was notified for candidates to apply.

Thereafter a clear 1 per cent distribution of vacancies for each of the four PwBD categories for the recruitment exercise was made increasing the total number of vacancies reserved for PwBD to around 2,500.

Now, the qualified PwBD candidates would be appointed as per their merit in their respective Railway zones as per vacancies notified for the different classes of divyangjan.

Any unfilled vacancies would not be filled by other non-PwBD candidates, the Railways said.