In biggest recruitment drive, Railways hires over 10,500 personnel in RPF

In its biggest enrollment drive, the Indian Railways has recruited over 10,500 personnel in the Railway Protection Force (RPF), reserving almost 50 per cent vacancies of constables for women, a top official said.

The recruitment process oftotal 10,537 jawans, including 1,120 sub-inspectors, 8,619 constables and 798 ancillary staffers,began in May last year and has recently been completed, he said.

Since the current strength of women constables in the RPF is only about 2.25 per cent, the railway ministry gave priority to hire women to ensure their empowerment and increased representation in the force, he said.

"For this biggest RPF recruitment drive, we received over 82 lakh applications, including 14.25 lakh for the post of sub-inspectors against 1,120 vacancies, and 59 lakh for the posts of constables. For the ancillary posts, we got nine lakh applications,"Atul Pathak, chairman of the central recruitment committee, told PTI on Saturday.

Out of the 1,120 sub-inspectors recruited, 819 are men and 301 women. Besides, among the 8,619 constables enrolled, 4,403 are men and 4,216 women, said Pathak, who is currently principal chief security commissioner of the RPF.

Thephysical measurement test and physical efficiency test of all the successful candidates have been done and currently their police verification is underway.

The written exams for these posts were held at 400 centres across the country, Pathak said.

"For the first time, computer-based tests were introduced in the recruitment of the central armed paramilitary forces. The entire recruitment process was computerised without any manual interference to ensure transparency," he said.

The RPF, set up for better protection and security of railway property, has the power to arrest, investigate and prosecute criminals.