Railways officers to be recruited via Civil Services Exam; IRMS dropped

The Ministry of Railways has announced the cancellation of the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) exam for officer recruitment, and will instead use the Civil Services Examination, according to a report by PTI. The announcement was made today, February 2.

The Civil Service Exam is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. But this is in contradiction to an earlier order which stated that recruitment to the service would be done through a specially designed IRMS Examination, to be conducted by the UPSC from 2023.

The ministry in its statement said, “Ministry of Railways, in consultation with UPSC and DoPT, has decided that recruitment to Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) will be done through the Civil Services Examination to be conducted by the UPSC for the year 2023."

Moreover, the ministry is tight-lipped over the reasons behind the decision. But sources suggested that it was likely that it relented under pressure from officers belonging to non-engineering cadres, as stated in a report by PTI.

The IRMS Examination was seen to benefit students with an engineering or commerce background who planned to appear for the Civil Services Examination with an additional avenue open exclusively to them.