As the world's largest online recruitment drive starts today, candidates and parents are puzzled over a February notification by the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB).

Nearly 48 lakh candidates will appear for the first set of the computer-based tests for 66,502 vacancies of assistant loco-pilots and technicians (Group C).

The exams will be conducted in a phased manner till August 31. The next set of exams is on August 9, followed by exams on August 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 29, 30 and 31.

What Is The controversy?

The RRB in a notification had announced the recruitment for assistant loco pilots and technicians for 26,502 posts in February 2018.

However, on August 1, the RRB had issued a notification saying that the vacancies for the posts of assistant loco pilot and technicians is ‘likely’ to be increased to 60,000 from 26,502 provisional vacancies notified earlier.

The Puzzle

The notification by RRB has now made candidates and parents anxious of whether there are 26,000 or 60,000 posts or a political ploy by the ruling party?

Reading the unique notification by RRB on context of coming general elections in 2019, it may be political plank by the government to attract young voters.

Political Angle

Last year, union minister Piyush Goyal said that railways can create 10 lakh jobs within a year.

Monetising the real estate assets as well as fast tracking some of the existing investment plans would generate a lot of employment opportunities in the railways and the ecosystem around it, he said.

"My own sense is, may not be directly jobs in railways, but certainly through engaging people and working in variety of areas across the ecosystem, not less than a million jobs can be created in less than 12 months -- only railways and ecosystem around the railways," Goyal said at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The government's moving aggressively on the rail track and safety maintenance programme alone would create 2 lakh jobs, he added. “If I look at the amount of investment in pipeline and activate that, it will create 2-2.5 lakh jobs in existing projects," Goyal said.

Logistical Nightmare

To clear the extra rush and over crowding on the eve of the first phase of the railways' computer-based exam, railways has now announced nine exam special trains.

The national transporter announced the running of two trains between Bihar's Muzaffarpur city and Secunderabad in Telangana.

It also said special trains would be run between Muzaffarpur and Bhubaneshwar, between Darbhanga and Bhubaneshwar, Barauni and Sikandarabad, and Danapur and Sikandarabad.

The 05289 Muzaffarpur-Secunderabad special train departed from Muzaffarpur this noon and will arrive at Secunderabad at 1 PM on Friday, a statement said.

The return 05290 Secunderabad-Muzaffarpur train will depart Secunderabad at 9 PM on Friday and arrive at Muzaffarpur at 2 AM on Sunday.

The train between Muzaffarpur and Bhubaneshwar will depart on August 10 at 5.25 PM and reach Bhubaneshwar at 6.30 PM the next day.

The train between Darbhanga and Bhubaneshwar will depart at 3 PM on August 11 and reach it's destination at 4.30 PM the next day.

The train between Barauni and Sikandarabad will depart at 7.05 AM on August 10 and reach it's destination the next day at 11.00 PM.

The train between Danapur and Sikandarabad will depart at 5.10 PM on August 10 and reach Sikandarabad at 2.30 PM.

The railways has also announced three special trains -- Patna-Indore-Patna, Danapur-Secunderabad and Darbhanga Secunderabad -- for the exam.

Exam Process

Railways activated a mock link for the first stage of the computer-based test on July 26 and E-call letters can be downloaded from the recruitment board website four days before the exam.

Candidates can log in with their credentials on the above mentioned dates through a link to be provided on the official websites of the RRBs and find out about their exam centre, date and session, and download Travel Authority (for SC/ST candidates only) and E-call letter, a notice from the Railways had said last week.

The exam will last for an hour for general candidates and 80 minutes for candidates who are differently-abled. It will consist of 75 multiple choice questions and there will be a negative marking (1/3rd) for every incorrect answer.

First Published:Aug 9, 2018 1:48 PM IST