CHENNAI: Alleging inaction by Southern Railway in absorbing trained apprentices, members of the All India Railways Act Apprentice Welfare Association on Wednesday said a long-pending recruitment process dating back to 2008 remains unresolved, leaving hundreds without permanent jobs.
At the centre of the dispute is a seniority list of 839 apprentices prepared in 2008, of whom 534 were recruited, while the remaining candidates were not taken into service. "Even though postings had been identified, 305 of us were never appointed," said Prem Kumar, a 2008 batch apprentice from the Golden Rock Railway Workshop (GOC) in Tiruchy.
The association further claimed that, citing a pending court case, even those recruited have not been regularised for nearly 17–18 years. The members questioned the applicability of the case, stating that it pertains only to those already recruited and not to those still awaiting appointment. They also pointed out that the case was filed by an "ITI Unemployed Association", which, according to them, had been dissolved by the Tamil Nadu government in 2008.
They also raised concerns over a policy introduced after 2016, requiring apprentices to qualify through an examination under a 20 per cent quota. According to the association, this has effectively closed their entry.
"We were selected through a written exam, interview, medical, and document verification, and then trained for three years. Now, we are competing with students who got 90 per cent in board exams or cleared ITI, thereby losing a head start in marks," they said.
The newcomers are directly recruited via skill development scheme while earlier batches typically had scores of around 55–60 per cent.
While such cases have already been addressed in all other railway zones and units, the process remains incomplete only in the Southern zone, they alleged. "The chairman is common for all zones. If it is being done elsewhere, why is it not happening here," asked an aspirant.
The association said they had submitted petitions to elected representatives, Union Ministers and railway authorities, and had also staged protests in Chennai and Delhi over the past two-and-a-half years, but without resolution. With no progress so far, the association said it would boycott the upcoming Assembly elections if their demands remain unaddressed.