Railways ropes in RRB for all departmental exams after CBI arrests 26 officials in paper leak case

The decision comes a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested 26 railway officials of East Central Railway in Uttar Pradesh’s Mughal Sarai for allegedly leaking papers of a departmental examination and seized Rs 1.17 crore cash during its raids.

The exam was to be conducted for the elevation to the post of chief loco pilot at Mughal Sarai, adding the exam was to be conducted on Tuesday. The CBI conducted searches at three spots and caught a total of 17 candidates with photocopies of hand-written question papers.

So far, the departmental promotion exams have been held by railway divisions and zones internally. Of late, several allegations of corruption and the use of unfair means were reported in these exams.

In a press release, the Railway Ministry said, “Today, a high-level meeting was conducted by the Railway Board. It has been decided that all departmental promotion examinations will be done by RRB/ centralised examination through CBT.”

The statement added, “All zonal railways will make a calendar for the examination. All the examinations will be conducted on the basis of a calendar only.” The Ministry added that the responsibility has been handed over to RRB after considering its long experience of transparent, fair and highly appreciated examinations conducted in recent years.

“From 2015 to till date, more than 7.7 crore candidates have appeared in exams through computer-based tests without any paper leakage, impersonation, remote log-in and use of spy devices,” the Ministry added.

It said that the fair examination has been made possible due to the selection of exam-conducting agencies through open tender with the criteria of Quality and Cost Based Selection, among various other conditions.