Paving the way for juniors to potentially supercede their seniors to reach top posts in the Indian Railways based on their performance during their service, the national transporter has now said that officers from 1983 and 1984 batch across all cadres may apply for Level 16 posts under the Indian Railway Management Service.

Clarifying on the selection norms to be followed, the Railways said that the Ministry of Railways will draw up a panel of eligible railway officers for appointment to Level 16 IRMS posts.

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Henceforth, the secretary-level posts of the Chairman, Railway Board, the four Board members and two director generals will be called Indian Railway Management Service (Level 17) posts. Similarly, the 29 posts of general manager of zonal railways, production units and other allied organisations, along with the posts of additional member (Planning) and secretary, Railway Board will be called IRMS (Level 16) posts.

All officers belonging to the eight organised Group A services of Railways (Traffic, Mechanical, Electrical, Accounts etc.) who are in Level 15 (Higher Administrative Grade) or above will be eligible to apply for these posts. As regards the empanelment, the Railways said it shall be done batch-wise from amongst the eligible candidates, selecting the best suitable officers through a comprehensive assessment by the ministry and then approved by the ACC.

“Only those officers of 1983 and 1984 exam batch, who shall be in service as on September 1, 2022, belonging to eight organised services – IRSE, IRSME, IRSEE, IRSSE, IRSS, IRTS, IRPS and IRAS – and working in Level 15 (HAG) or above posts on regular basis, shall be eligible for submission of application form as for empanelment to Level 16 posts,” the Railways said in a circular issued on Tuesday.

For being considered for empanelment, eligible officers will have to apply for empanelment indicating top three positions that the officer would like to be considered for (officer will, however, be considered for all positions), description of top five contributions to the organization in lifetime (can give more also) and description of top five contributions that officer will make in the top three positions that the officer is aspiring for in a given time frame.

The application would also have to be accompanied by the latest copy of annual property return filed by the applicant clearly indicating the date of filing. The last date for receipt of applications will be 21 days from the date of issue of this letter that is June 7, 2022.

This will be the first such empanelment based on performance in the history of Indian Railways which always banked on “seniority” for top posts. Officials said that this system would end departmentalism. This also does away with the need to merge all officers from different services into a common seniority list, which was proving to be a bone of contention.