National

Railways to decide later on fresh exam

NEW DELHI: The Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai, has decided to hold re-examination for students affected by vandalism by goons allegedly belonging to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) only after the present turmoil cooled down.

Consequent to this decision, sources in the Railways told The Hindu to withhold publication of the results of the written examinations held in October last.

The RRB, Mumbai, assessed that only two examination centres in Mumbai had been affected by the anti-social elements who had torn up answer sheets, denying the candidates from taking the examination.

The goons had targeted 19 other centres but they were more in the form of protests which were limited to outside the examination centres. The RRB’s banners proclaiming the examination centre were pulled down besides sloganeering against the “outsiders.”

The recruitment board in its report was of the opinion that about 40 students had been affected in the two centres and the exercise to conduct re-examination would be confined to just these candidates.

According to sources, the candidates hailed from all parts of the country and those injured were also from West Bengal and not just Hindi-speaking candidates.

In the wake of the directive issued by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad that justice would be done with all and that they would be given an opportunity to take the examination at an appropriate time and place, the RRB has decided not to publish the results.

The board had held the examinations at 145 centres in Mumbai, 136 in Nagpur and 29 centres in Sholapur for filling 518 vacancies for three posts of goods train guard, enquiry-cum-reservation clerk and assistant station master.

The report stressed that no untoward incidents were reported from Nagpur and Sholapur centres and that disturbances were limited to a part of Mumbai.

About 42,000 candidates had taken the examination, even though over 2.5 lakh had applied for these posts. The largest turnout was in Mumbai where 25,000 candidates took the test, followed by 12,000 in Nagpur and 5,000 in Sholapur.

As per rules, the railways provided free to and fro tickets to candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe.

The issue snowballed into a political storm with leaders from Bihar demanding action against the MNS and its chief Raj Thackeray.

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