Railway department on the scanner! Students protest over RRB NTPC and Group D results

The railway department is facing a huge uproar from the students in Bihar. The trains have been attacked with stones and another train has been set on fire by the students. The protest was going on for a few days but today a massive uproar was seen by the students. The opposition directly pointed out the student’s grievances and asked for immediate action from the Government authorities. In some viral video earlier, it was seen students were been treated very badly by the police officials.

Railway Recruitment Board: The problem?

The students are pointing the issue to the Railway Recruitment Board. There are two undergoing issues with RRB.

• Firstly, the candidates applying NTPC are having issues with the examination procedure. The examination is based on Computer Based Test (CBT), which will occur in the process of completion of RRB NTPC examinations. There would be a common entrance test for college and class 12 students.
• But the anomaly in the results have been seen. The Board has said that 20 % extra seats are available after the completion of CBT 1 examinations but same candidates have been selected for more than one post.
• The class 12 and college students used to have different exams. But now there has been a single entrance test. The cut off of the same test has been set twice i.e, one for college students and other for intermediate or class 12 students. So same college student has been selected for more than one post which was actually available for single students. These single student would be of either college or class 12 students.
• Secondly, in the group D selection procedure, only one test was alloted for the selection. But again the board have issued the notification where two test is being considered for the students. This has led an uproar among the students as this examination should have been completed by 2019.
• Many aspirants were waiting for the completion of examination process but such changes in the notification has made every student in huge fray.
• The admit cards had also been released by the RRB itself a few days before. Around 1.25 crore candidates had applied for the exams that had advertised over 35,000 posts from level 2 to level 6, with starting pay ranging from ₹ 19,900 to ₹ 35,400 per month. Around 60 lakh people appeared for the exam.

Reactions from Railway department

“Railway constitutes High Power Committee to look into Concerns of Candidates over NTPC CBT-1 Result. Candidates may submit their Grievances to Committee till 16th February 2022,” the railway ministry tweeted. “Chief Ministers are working sensitively and we are in touch with them. We urge candidates to put forth grievances formally,”- Ashwini Vaishnav, the Railway Minister urged. The tests have been completely suspended for now. There has been the formation of a high-level committee to look after the issue.

The Railway board has said to lodge the concerns and suggestions from the students to the committee at rrbcommittee@railnet.gov.in. The notice has been given on the website itself. All chairpersons of RRBs have also been directed to receive the grievances of candidates through their existing channels, compile these grievances and send the same to the committee. Candidates have been given 3 weeks of time to submit their grievances. They can make grievances till the 16th of February and the committee will submit their recommendation up to the 2nd of March, 2022.

Further, the Railway department has tried to make understand to students about the presence of notification related to CBT 2nd examinations. The current government is usually accused by the opposition regarding the issue of Government jobs occurring all over the country. It will be interesting to see how the Government will see as the elections in different states are also approaching nearby.

The committee

The committee members include Deepak Peter, chairperson, Principal Executive Director (Industrial Relations), Railway Board; Rajiv Gandhi, Member Secretary Executive Director Establishment (RRB), Railway Board; Aditya Kumar, Member, Chief Personnel Officer (Administration), Western Railway; Jagdish Alagar, Member Chairperson RRB/ Chennai; Mukesh Gupta, Member Chairperson RRB/ Bhopal.

Today’s scenario

Very violent scenes were reported on this auspicious day of Republic Day, which is celebrated all over the country. In Gaya, the train compartments were completely engulfed in fire, as reported by different media houses. In the railway tracks of Jehanabad town, the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was burnt by the protesters. The police could not control the students and such a violent scene was seen.