The Railway Board has instructed all the zonal regional managers to take up random “ambush checks” with the help of a portable breath analyser at stations en route on all the running staff like loco and assistant loco pilots, train guards, passing staff, control and maintenance staff on duty as part of a 15-day safety drive recently.
The drive, which has commenced few days ago, has to be done by the officers and supervisors concerned to check to ensure that the staff are not under the influence of alcohol. The officials concerned have been advised to take feedback from different “sources” to maintain a list of staff working under them who are “habitual of drinking occasionally/regularly”.
Written instructions by the RB officials called for a such a list of staff prone to alcohol to be available with the supervisory officials concerned irrespective of the group. “A special watch should be kept on these alcoholic staff. All the staff should be counselled that it is their moral duty to report in case any staff member is found under the influence of alcohol,” it said.
Staff identified as “alcoholic” should be counselled both short term and long term on its ill effects during the training programmes. Families of such staff should also be counselled and if need be, the staff member concerned should be sent to de-addiction camps.
These camps are to be organised by the railway divisions within their resources or with the help of voluntary organisations identified for the purpose. The de-addiction camps should be a continuous process and should be held regularly.
Job Calendar
Meanwhile, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has informed the Parliament that an annual calendar for recruitment to various categories of Group ‘C’ posts has been introduced from last year for ensuring faster process.
About 10 centralised employment notifications for 92,116 vacancies have been notified during January to December 2024 for filling up the posts of assistant loco pilots, technicians, sub-inspectors, constables in Railway Protection Force (RPF), junior engineers (JEs)/ depot material superintendent (DMS)/chemical & metallurgical assistant (CMA), etc. For four notifications, Computer Based Tests (CBTs) have been completed from November 25 to December 30. Prior to that post the easing of restrictions imposed on account of COVID-19, two major examinations involving more than 2.37 crore candidates had been conducted during 2020 to 2022 and over 1.31 lakh candidates have been recruited. The Minister also stated that the recruitment in last 10 years has been 5.02 lakh as against 4.11 lakh in the previous decade.
Published - February 11, 2025 06:33 pm IST
