SWR recruitment mired in controversy

The rift between the South Western Railway Zone and the people of Karnataka seems to have no end in sight. The zone has been mired in controversy since its inception.

First, it was the issue of zonal headquarters, which raised much heat and dust. While the Centre selected Bangalore as the SWR, there were strong protests from the people fighting for the SWR Zonal headquarters to be located at Hubli.

However, the expectation that justice would be done to the region and the people of the region in developing and recruiting people remained unfulfilled. There were strong protests against the Railways recruiting people from Bihar and other states for jobs in Karnataka.

Before the establishment of the SWR, most of Northern Karnataka was under the South Central Railway and people from Andhra Pradesh had a lion's share in the jobs. When the region was under Southern Railways, it was the domination of Tamilians.

The recent recruitment by SWR saw Biharis pocketing the lion's share of the jobs much to the chagrin of candidates from Karnataka. Now the SWR has invited applications from candidates for recruitment to Group 'D' posts.

The conditions prescribed for recruitment again allowed the authorities to recruit people from other states.

Veteran journalist and former chairman of Karnataka Watchdog Committee Patil Puttappa who spearheaded the agitation for establishing the SWR Zone with its headquarters in Hubli has come out strongly against the policy of the Railways.

He said the SWR had very few Kannada-speaking employees in their group 'C' and 'D" cadres. He said the employees in group 'C' and 'D' cadres should be localities.

He pointed out that there were violent incidents in Maharashtra and Assam during recruitment and the recruitment was subsequently stopped.