RRB Adds SSE Vacancies To Junior Engineer; Diploma And Degree Holders Worried

Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) is stopping direct recruitment for Senior Section Engineer and this decision will be reviewed after 1 year. The board will do recruitment in supervisory categories only for Junior Engineers. RRB SSE / CDMS / CMS vacancies are being added to RRB JE / DMS / CMA for the purpose of recruitment.

RRB JE Notification 2018/2019 releasing on December 29, 2018, will be for 14059 vacancies. SSE, JE, CDMS, DMS, CMA, CMS will respectively have 4304, 8779, 162, 294, 481, 39 vacancies. However, vacancies of SSE, CDMS, CMS are being added to vacancies of JE, DMS, CMA.

This information is contained in images of internal circulars No. E(NG)II/2018/RR-1/31 dated October 25, 2018, and No.2017/E(RRB)/25/19-Pt dated December 12, 2018 that are being circulated on social media. The first circular is on discontinuation of direct recruitment to the posts of Senior Section Engineers (SSEs). Second one elaborates upon publication of railway recruitment notification for JE, CMA, DMS.

Indian Railway is publishing notification as per vacancies counted on January 1, 2018, and estimated up to December 31, 2020 by Railways CR, ECoR, ECR, ER, Metro, NCR, NER, NFR, NR, NWR, SCR, SECR, SER, SR, SWR, WCR, WR, CLW, DLW, DMW, ICF, MCF, RCF, RDSO, RWF. Respective railways have assessed 1285, 424, 587, 1000, 62, 983, 434, 796, 1866, 778, 830, 309, 678, 1245, 665, 276, 1097, 139, 22, 101, 81, 22, 84, 218, 77 vacancies.

Only RRB JE recruitment is worrying Diploma holders.

Until now, Railway Recruitment Board used to fill vacancies separately for Junior Engineer (JE) and Senior Section Engineer (SSE). In its last RRB JE SSE recruitment, candidates with 3 years Diploma in Engineering or B.Sc in Engineering were eligible for Junior Engineer vacancies, and those with 4 years Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering were eligible for Senior Section Engineer. Only RRB JE recruitment is worrying Diploma holders.

As now there will only be recruitment for Junior Engineer, diploma holders are worried that they will have to compete with engineering degree holders. Earlier there used to be direct recruitment to vacancies in Group C posts of SSEs in Civil Engineering, Electrical, Mechanical, Signal and Telecom, Track and Machine Organization for which candidates with preparation of level of GATE, IES used to compete. Candidates are concerned that by removing separate vacancies, engineers desirous of getting a job in Indian Railway will apply for JE only and they might create tough competition for others.

Engineering degree holders are annoyed by discontinuation of RRB SSE recruitment

On the other hand, degree holders also do not seem pleased. Their concern is that like before, there should be direct recruitment for SSE as that was exclusively for them. Engineering degree holders are annoyed by discontinuation of RRB SSE recruitment. When RRB JE SSE recruitment was conducted last time, grade pay for Junior Engineer was 4200 and grade pay for Senior Section Engineer was 4600. Thus lower grade pay is also a disadvantage.

What do JE and SSE do in Indian Railway?

Junior Engineers are supervisors in respective department of Railways. Like JE Mechanical will be a supervisor in Mechanical Department. They work under Section Engineers. Posting of JE can be at either station or production unit or workshop.

Senior Section Engineer are also supervisors. They are in charge of a section of track and have to take care of its maintenance including repair work and attending to fractures. JEs, trackman, khalasis, gangman, patrolman work under SSEs.

While on one hand Railway Recruitment Board, Indian Railway, Government of India has managed to please job seekers in India by releasing large number of vacancies this year before elections – 1.89 crore applied for RRB Group D 62907 vacancies, 47.56 lakh applied for RRB ALP and Technician 64371 vacancies – on the other hand, this decision that is yet to be publicly notified, is seeing mixed reactions.

Candidates are happy to have another government job exam to compete for. However some are concerned about this adding up of vacancies. Let us know your views in comments below on this matter about RRB discontinuing SSE vacancies and adding to RRB JE recruitment.