Complete transparency in recruitment of people with diabilities: Railway Ministry

The Ministry of Railways issued a statement on Friday and clarified that the recruitment process for the Disabled persons ('Divyangjan') is transparent and fair. This comes a few days after the Disabled persons staged a protest at Mandi House in Delhi. Their main demand included getting Level-1 jobs in the Railways.The railways' recruitment board issued a centralized notification for around 63000 Level-1 vacancies for all Railway zones across Indian Railways in February 2018.  

Statement issued by Railway Ministry 

A statement from the Railway Ministry said, "At the outset, on this sensitive matter, it is categorically stated that insofar as Divyangjan candidates are concerned, Railways have ensured that notification of the required number of reserved vacancies, conduct of the entire recruitment exercise, and filling up of posts meant for Divyangjan have been not only transparent and fair but also in accordance with statutory provisions and the law of the land in this regard”. 

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The statement also read, “There was a total of about 1.87 crore applicants. Written Exams (Computer-based 100% objective in 15 languages) were conducted in the latter part of 2018. Around 1,55,000 (1.55 lakhs) disabled candidates took the exam for around 2400 posts notified as reserved for such candidates. All prescribed facilities such as scribes, extra time, careful seating arrangements, etc. were arranged for Disabled candidates". 

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Marks relaxed for disabled candidates 

"Minimum qualifying/cut-off threshold scores that were 40 for General candidates and 30 for SC/ST/OBC candidates were relaxed by 2 marks to 38 and 28 respectively for Disabled candidates. Around 34000 Disabled candidates scored above this threshold qualifying limit. Based on the number of vacancies and their merit position in the particular Disability category in that Railway, the commensurate number of qualified candidates were called for Document Verification and medical examination, prior to being offered appointment," it read. 

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"So far, around 1025 Disabled candidates have already been selected for appointment. As authenticity of certificates and determining of medical status is taking additional time in the case of some Disabled candidates, this number of 1025 will go up in the coming weeks," read the statement from Ministry. 

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