Officers eligible for DRM should be below 52 years of age: Railway Board

The Railway Board has approved fresh guidelines for the posting of divisional railway managers for its 68 rail divisions, according to which officers being considered for short-listing as DRMs should be less than 52 years of age among other eligibility criteria.

The guidelines, released on September 3, 2024, have introduced some new eligibility criteria, including that the officers should have minimum 15 years in Railways/Railway PSUs.

However, it does not offer any age relaxation which has disappointed a section of senior railway officials and experts.

"Officers being considered for short-listing as DRMs should be less than 52 years of age as on 1st January of the vacancy year for which the short list is being made," the guideline said, merely reiterating the previous position.

"I believe restricting the posting of DRM with age is not a right decision. A relaxation was expected but it didn't happen," a senior railway official earlier posted as DRM said.

He added, "It will demotivate a lot of officers who know in advance that they cross the age of 52 by the time they become eligible for DRM in their career growth. Such officers might be more talented and efficient than many other eligible candidates."

Many other former DRMs second the view and said a rail division needs a dynamic and honest officer as its earnings go into thousands of crores and any wrong decision leads to a huge setback to the Railways.

"Officers eligible for DRM's post should be imparted intense management training for about a year to enable them to handle all sorts of challenges as it is an extremely demanding position," another senior railway official said.

However, the new guideline also said the competent authority may make relaxations to one or more of the conditions in a suitable case keeping in view the administrative requirements and public interest after recording the reasons in writing.

Experts welcomed the Railway Board's decision to make it mandatory for an officer to work with railways for 15 years before being eligible for the post of a DRM in the new guideline, which according to them was not present in the previous one.

"Earlier, 22 years of overall working experience in government jobs was required but now it has been made 15 years in railways only which is a positive decision," a former DRM said.

Besides, the new guideline also introduces a new eligibility criteria, according to which the Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) of the entire career of the official will be taken into consideration and it should have at least 60 per cent 'Outstanding' APARs in his or her entire career.

"Another addition in the guideline is that the aspiring officer should have a minimum of five clearances for posting as DRM in his last ten APARs. In the previous guidelines, five clearances were required in the five APARs,' a senior railway official said.

According to experts, the new guidelines have introduced "January 1 to December 31 of the year" as the short-list year which used to be "July 1 of the year to June 30 of the next year".

"These guidelines will come into force from the short-list year 2024. Since the short-list year (July 1 of the year to June 30 of next year) is being shifted to calendar year (January 1 to December 31 of the year) and the year 2024 being the transitional year, vacancies of 2023-24 shall be reckoned as vacancies for the short-list year 2024," the guideline said.

"As a one-time measure, officers who were eligible age-wise as on 01.07.2023 but have become over-aged as on 01.01.2024. shall also be eligible to be considered for the short-list year 2024," it added.

There are many other features of this policy guidelines which, according to experts, merely reiterated the previous positions.

For instance, it lists eight Group 'A' Railway Services that will be considered for short listing for the DRM posts.

These are Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE), Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS) and Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS).

"Officers are short-listed for posting as DRMs on recognition of the fact that the task is arduous in nature and that DRM is the overall in-charge of the division dealing with all aspects of railway operations," the guideline said.

"Railway services which are directly involved in train operations will hold more slots of DRMs in relation to services not directly involved in train operations. However, at one time the officers of one service would occupy a minimum two posts and not more than fourteen posts of DRMs," it added.