JOIN USRailways suspends NTPC, Level 1 exams amid protests
After violent protests in Bihar by job aspirants over the selection process of its recruitment exams, Indian Railways on Wednesday decided to put on hold its recruitment drives and talk to the agitators first.
The national transporter decided to suspend its mega recruitment drive after the law and order situation worsened in Bihar and intelligence inputs indicated protesting job seekers were mobilising in other states as well.
The Non-Technical Popular Category (NTPC) recruitment drive, whose second round of exams was scheduled to start from February 15, is now on hold.
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A committee headed by Deepak Peter Gabriel, Principal Executive Director (Industrial Relations) in the Railway ministry, was formed. The committee will talk to willing volunteers from protestors and engage with those who have qualified as well as those who could not Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw announced here on Wednesday.
The panel will look into the concerns raised by candidates regarding the results of the first stage Computer-Based Test (CBT) conducted for Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC).
The candidates can lodge their concerns and suggestions to the committee at the following email id –rrbcommittee@railnet.gov.in. Candidates have been given three weeks time up to February 12 to submit their concerns and the committee after examining these concerns will submit its recommendations by March 4.
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Job seekers in Bihar have been protesting against the selection process and disrupted train services in several places for the past few days. On Wednesday, a crowd stormed the Gaya Junction and set fire to the Bhabhua-Patna InterCity Express, though nobody was injured.
In Sitamarhi, police fired in the air to disperse demonstrators at the railway station. Protests were also reported from Patna, Nawada, Muzaffarpur, Buxar, and Bhojpur districts.
The stir affected several sections of the East Central Railway (ECR) zone and hindered the running of more than 25 trains causing inconvenience to passengers.
The central government warned that those who vandalise the railway properties will now be categorised under “unlawful activities” that may get one banned for life from obtaining railway jobs.
Also Read | Shramjeevi Express train set on fire by agitators in Bihar's Gaya
The protesters have raised many issues including opposing two stages examination. They say the second stage for final selection is tantamount to “cheating” those who appeared and cleared the first stage of the RRB-NTPC exam for a computer-based test which was released on January 15.
Many of the protesters also opposed allowing candidates with higher qualifications to compete for jobs meant for those with relatively lower qualifications.
The aspirants have also alleged discrepancies in the examination results, which reportedly showed that one candidate had been declared qualified from multiple regions when according to the official rules, one candidate is allowed to qualify from only one region.
Railways is recruiting 35,281 vacant posts in various categories ranging from the junior clerk, train assistant, guard, timekeeper etc to station master across its verticals in its zones.
Of the total vacancies, 24,281 posts are open to graduates, 11,000 are for under-graduates. Around 1.25 crore candidates had appeared.
Reacting to some of the demands of protestors, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that no candidate can be recruited for multiple posts. However, he also said that the government cannot legally bar graduates from applying to posts that require 10+2 qualifications.
After vacancies were announced in 2019, the exams were to be tentatively held in September 2019 but were postponed to March 2020. Due to Covid-19, finally, CTBT-1 (Computer Based Test) was held over 68 days in 133 shifts with two shifts each day between April-July 2020. The results for CBT-1 were declared on January 14, 2022.
The next stage called CBT-2 is scheduled for mid-February.
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