The Ministry of Railways took to Twitter today to caution Indians about touts running a fake IRCTC job scam. "It has come to notice that some unscrupulous elements are trying to deceive candidates/public by false promises of securing jobs in IRCTC. Public/candidates are hereby informed not to fall prey under the claim made by such job racketeers/touts," said the tweet.
The circular attached with the tweet added that "IRCTC has not initiated any recruitment in the recent past. Whenever recruitment is made same will be advertised in the newspaper as well as in the official IRCTC website."
For the record, IRCTC stands for Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways that handles the online ticketing platform as well as pantry services on various trains and tourism services. This circular comes on the heels of a massive recruitment drive for the railways, for which over 25 million people reportedly applied for the 90,000 jobs advertised. Given the crazed demand for employment with the railways, job rackets are nothing new in this area.
According to The Hindustan Times, the railway ministry is currently investigating an audacious job scam in which eight people were interviewed for the position of 'ticket collector' on the premises of Rail Bhavan, handed out appointment letters, and cheated of Rs 5 lakh each. Recognising the scale of the problem, the newly-issued circular by the railways ministry also solicited whistleblowers. "Help IRCTC is catching such touts/job racketeers when they approach you by lodging a complaint in the police stations against such element and inform us regarding the same," it said.