Railway officials reject charges of exam bias

Mumbai : Senior railway officials said on Friday that the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) exams were centralised exams with equal oppurtunity for candidatesfrom all across India। They were rejecting charges made by MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who said the RRB exams were being manipulated to favour some candidates.
Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) officials ridiculed Thackeray's charge that candidates from Bihar were liberately sent to appear for the exams conducted in Mumbai.
"There are 19 RRBs across India to cover the 16 zonal railways, workshops and factories, there is no reason why candidates should only prefer RRB, Mumbai. The salary scales and perks of the Indian Railways are the same for everywhere," said an official.
Officials pointed out that Bihari, Jharkhnad and Uttar Pradesh have recruitment boards at Muzaffarpur, Patna, Ranchi, Allahabad and Gorakhpur. All these RRBs frequently advertise for vacancies in zones under their jurisdiction, said officials. More often than not, these RRBs do issue advertisements in newspapers published in other places, including Mumbai, added officials. There are RRBs in practically every important city, including Kolkata, Malda, Guwahati, Bhubhaneshwar, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Secundrabad, Thiruvananthapuram and even Srinagar.
Another official, himself from Maharashtra, said candidates from the state can easily get forms for the RRB exams in front of any big terminus, like CST or Churchgate in Mumbai. All these ads are routinely printed in the Employment Exchange magazine.
"They can also go to RRB exams held in other states, just like the north Indians come here for RRB exams. It's similar to an MBA aspirant from the South going for an entrance held at a Delhi or Gurgaon business school," an official reasoned.
Asked if RRB, Mumbai, offered more vacancies than other RRBs in the country, senior officials said no. "Northern Railway has many more express and mail train vacancies. Zones covering Bihar, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh have huge freight operaions due to coal reserves. And the Eastern and Southern Railways have subarban as well as outstation operations like CR and WR," an official explained.