By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The eight service cadres of Indian Railways (IR) would soon be merged into one newly created Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS). This has been decided by the government to bring uniformity in the categories of services for encouraging the fast and delivery-oriented decision-making process in the railways.
The union government on last Wednesday formally issued a gazette notification about the proposed merger of existing eight services of Indian Railway, which fall under the Central Civil Services, into one.
Railway sources said that the merger has been decided with an aim to bring about a uniform appointment system reducing the inter-departmental lengthy process besides expediting the coordinated and fast decision making in the organization.
In fact, the union cabinet in 2019 on December 24, had approved the merger plan of eight services into one based on the recommendations of the Bibek Debroy committee report of 2015, in which strong recommendations were laid down for restructuring of railway board and the railway ministry respectively.
According to railway sources, the existing Indian Railway Services of Engineering (IRSE), the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering (IRSME), the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineering (IRSEE), the Indian Railways Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE), the Indian Railway Store Services (IRSS), the Indian Railway Traffic Services (IRTS), the Indian Railway Account Service (IRAS) and the Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) would merger into one, the Indian Railway Management Service in near future.
The merger of existing services would be carried out accordingly from junior level to high-grade levels paving a way for the officers of only newly created Indian Railway Management Service to become eligible for the chairman and the members of railway board posts in the future.
Meanwhile, the government has excluded the Indian Railways Protection Force Service and the Indian Railways Medical Service from merging into the IRMS.
Railways sources said that process is on to complete the unification of eight existing services at the earliest.
As per recommendations, the officers of eight different services would continue working on the same current posts as only their services would change from existing to newly created services after the merger.
“In future, the recruitment to IRMS will be made through the UPSC (civil services) in proper consultation with UPSC and the DOPT”, said a railway source.
The decision for unification was taken in the suggestion of all levels of officers during “Parivartan Sangoshthi”, organised on December 7, 2019, in New Delhi.
Sources said that the idea of a new Indian Railway Management Service dates back to 1994 when the Tondon committee had first recommended this unified service.
