First time in July 1942, as
an experimental measure, a Service Commission with a
Chairman and two members was established for recruitment
of Subordinate Staff on the then North West Railway. The
position was reviewed in 1945 and Services Commissions
at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow were set up
under Railway Board. These Commissions were introduced
with two fold functions of recruiting class III staff
and also tender advice to General Managers for dealing
with appeals from subordinate staff on disciplinary
matters. |
Later Developments |
In 1948, the Indian Railway
Enquiry Committee reviewed working of commissions. While
recommending their permanency, suggested that the work
related to appeals should be withdrawn so that
commission can give undivided attention to recruitments.
Chairman Bombay/Service Commission was given the
supervisory role to Supervise Commissions at Calcutta,
Lucknow and Madras. |
In 1949, due to financial
constraints a ban was imposed on recruitments on Indian
Railways thus numbers of commissions was reduced to one
centrally located at Bombay. |
In 1953-54 when Economic
conditions of Indian Railway improved, four service
commission were again set up at Bombay, Madras,
Allahabad and Calcutta. In 1956, the Estimates committee
generally approved the method of recruitment by the
constitution of the Railway Service Commissions. |
In 1973 to cater the needs
of the Northern Eastern Railway and to facilitate
recruitment from the under developed areas of that
region an additional commission was set up at
Muzaffarpur. In the same year a branch office of
Calcutta Service Commission was opened at anchi. In
1978 one more additional Service Commission was set up
at Secunderabad to cater for the needs of newly formed
South Central Railway. Recruitment of staff for the
needs of NF Railway was still being done through
recruitment committee control by NF Railway . Thus in
1978 this job was entrusted to full fledged service
commission with Head Quarters at Guwahati. Yet another
service commission was opened in 1980 at Bangalore to
cater for the needs of candidates from remote backward
areas of Karnataka. In 1981 fulfledge service commission
was opened at Danapur. |
Seven more commissions were
set up in 1983 at Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhuvneshwar,
Chandigarh, Jammu and Srinagar with sitting at Leh and
Trivendrum. In 1984 two more service commissions were
set up at Malda and Gorakhpur and a fulfledge commission
at Ranchi was set up to cater for exclusive needs of
Scheduled tribes of the area. |
Renaming of Railway
Service Commission as Railway Recruitment Board |
In January 1985 Railway
Service Commissions have been renamed as Railway
Recruitment Boards (RRBs). In the year 1998, all RRBs
came under the control of the Railway Recruitment
Control Board (RRCB), which was set up in the Ministry
of Railways (Railway Board) to coordinate and streamline
the working of RRBs. Thus at present 21 Railway
Recruitment Boards are functioning. |
Objectives of Railway
Recruitment Control Board |
The recruitment boards
have been set up based on the policies evolved over a
period of time to achieve the following objectives: |
To rationalize the work load
on existing RRBs. |
To Expedite selection
process |
To bring the recruitment
agencies nearer to the candidates in the far flung areas
and interior sides. |
To conduct recruitment on
all India basis. |