MPs blamed for skewed recruitment in SWR Rly

The large turnout of candidates from Bihar and other northern states in Karnataka for the recruitment to the D Group in the South Western Railway Zone has raised a lot of heat and dust.

The allegations that the Railways have been discriminating against Kannada-speaking people in recruitment by giving preference to outsiders gains ground as one looks at the figures.

After agitations for years the South Western Railway Zone was established with Bangalore as its headquarters which was subsequently shifted to Hubli.

The demand for a separate zone was to increase employment opportunities for Kannada-speaking people in Railways, which were earlier dominated by Telugu and Tamil-speaking people. But even after the establishment of South Western Railway Zone, outsiders continue to get a chunk of jobs. While most of the top officials in the SWR are non-Kannadigas, even the D group workers are from Bihar and other northern states.

When recruitment to fill the vacancies in the D group was done two years ago, of the 1,000 posts filled, 948 went to people from Bihar while there were only 52 persons from Karnataka. This had angered the pro-Kannada organisations then. Now, recruitment is on to fill 4,700 posts in D group and there are six lakh applicants. Of them, nearly 30 per cent applications have been rejected on technical grounds and the pro-Kannada organisations allege that majority of the rejected applications are from Karnataka.

Former chairman of Kannada Watchdog Committee Patil Puttappa has blamed the indifference of the Members of Parliament from Karnataka to the welfare of the Kannada-speaking people. Speaking to Business Standard here on Monday, he said MPs from Karnataka had failed in raising their voices against the injustice being done to Kannadigas. Puttappa said he would convene a meeting of MPs in Karnataka in the first week of February to discuss the issues.

He urged the Railways to have uniform dates countrywide for written test, physical fitness test and oral interview during recruitment to various positions. "This will ensure an equitable distribution of employment," he asserted.

Patil urged the authorities to include Gulbarga and Mangalore railway divisions which are revenue earning divisions in South Western Railway." If this is not done immediately there is danger of these divisions going to Kerala and Andhra Pradesh respectively," he warned.

He appealed to the agitating Kannada organisations not to stop local trains as it would create problems for the local people. Instead, he asked them to target long route trains "so that it would attract the attention of the authorities".

The railway authorities in the SWR seem to be indifferent to the issue and they quote rules which permit candidates from anywhere in the country to apply for a job and get one if eligible. The demand for reservation of 30 per cent of jobs to the locals remains unheeded.