APAR of official language and Hindi officers will now be 100% online, new rule of mandatory e-assessment implemented on SPARROW portal

Railway Board has taken another major reform step towards ensuring transparency, efficiency and timeliness in the administrative structure of Indian Railways. According to the latest official circular issued by the Railway Board under the Ministry of Railways, posted in all Zonal Railways, Production Units, Workshops, Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) and Central Training Institutes of Indian Railways. Official Language (Hindi) Cadre Officers The Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) will now be filed completely through digital medium.

‘Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window’ developed by Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) i.e. SPARROW (Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window) Now the process of self-appraisal, reporting and reviewing of officials of the official language cadre will be completed through the portal itself. Along with this, the evaluation done through traditional physical files (Physical Paper APAR), which was going on for decades, has been completely abolished.

A clear Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been set out in the letter sent by the Railway Board to all Zonal General Managers and Heads of Personnel and Official Language Departments:

1. Physical copies are now completely invalid: From the prescribed assessment year onwards, no confidential report of any Official Language Officer—including Assistant Director (Official Language), Deputy Director (Official Language), Senior Official Language Officer and Chief Official Language Officer—will be accepted in paper format. If any report is sent offline, it will be considered regulatoryly invalid.

2. Time-Bound Workflow: Time-bound generation will remain applicable on the Sparrow portal. The window of self-assessment will automatically close once the prescribed last date is over and if the reporting or reviewing officer does not mark within the stipulated time, the system will automatically transmit the file to the next level with ‘No Remarks’.

3. Digital Signature (DSC/e-Sign) Mandatory: To prevent any unauthorized entry or manipulation in the assessment process, approval will be valid only through Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) or Aadhaar-based e-Sign.

4. Transparency and quick appeal rights: As soon as the Reviewing Officer completes the evaluation and approves the report, his/her complete report and final grading will be displayed immediately on the officer’s personal Sparrow login dashboard. In case of any adverse remarks or low grading, the officers will be able to register their representation on the digital portal within the stipulated 15 days.

The Sparrow system was already being successfully implemented in Indian Railways for Group-A officers of Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS), Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) and various engineering cadres. However, many officials of the Official Language cadre being attached at the zonal level and in different administrative units often depended on the paper evaluation system.

• Control on delay in promotion: The biggest drawback in the manual system was that career promotions of officers remained pending for months and years due to old years’ ACR/APAR files being lost or incomplete at the time of promotion, senior pay scale, selection grade or Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings.

• Accurate Record Keeping: With the creation of a central digital database, a transparent and secure record of the overall efficiency of all official language officers, achievement of annual targets of progressive use of Hindi and their educational and administrative qualifications will be available to the Railway Ministry at a single click.

According to the annual program of the Department of Official Language (Ministry of Home Affairs) of the Central Government, mandatory targets are given to each ministry and department to promote the use of Hindi in official work. This digital reform of Railway Board will not only boost the morale of the Official Language officers but will also improve administrative efficiency:

• Fair Assessment: Having an online system will reduce the possibility of subjective bias in evaluation and will enable accurate and timely assessment of the actual work done by officials throughout the year—such as organizing Hindi workshops, translation of codes and manuals, regular meetings of the Official Language Implementation Committee (OLIC) and use of Hindi in computerization.

• Paperless and eco-friendly working style: In line with the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Green Railways’ mission of Railways, the expenditure on transportation of thousands of pages of paper records, files and their physical preservation will be reduced to zero.

Railway Board has directed the Chief Administrative Officers (Administration) and IT Cell of all the concerned Zonal Railways to map the profiles of all the remaining Rajbhasha Officers on the Sparrow system with immediate effect and ensure 100% error free and online conduct of the upcoming evaluation cycle by allotting them User IDs and digital credentials.