Video Editor: Rahul Sanpui
Video Producer: Aastha Gulati
On 13 August, Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) across the country released the result for the first stage Computer-Based Test (CBT) held in May and June for the position of Junior Engineer.
Three days after, candidates from across the country – myself included – started protesting against the CBT1 result as well as the qualifying process, which we think is unfair on various grounds. On Twitter, #rrbjeunfairresult was trending as several aspirants were tweeting against the Ministry of Railways.
The RRB JE notification states that candidates qualifying for the second stage CBT will be 15 times the community-wise vacancy of posts notified. While the Board has indeed done just that, many have been excluded for two following reasons.
Firstly, the RRB has set a cut-off for a qualifying exam. To be declared qualified, one has to score 40 percent marks for general category. However, the result declared has post-wise cut-offs. Every branch has different posts, so now there is a cut-off for each according to merit. This is unfair to the candidates. As my friend Gaurav explains:
“The notification mentions this is a qualifying exam, which means that there is a minimum qualifying criteria to filter candidates. It does not mean they release a merit list that filters candidates according to the post. That process is in the second step ie CBT2, which they haven’t done.”
Secondly, how can the RRB decide, based on non-technical questions, to allot technical posts? They have to test technical abilities and then they can decide which post is preferred.
Ministry of Railway Tweets Clarification
The ministry tweeted a clarification on 19 August in response to our protest and queries.
Shockingly, an official notification wrongly quoted the date when the result was declared. Results were declared on 13 August. It secondly, said that the result was ‘screening’ in nature and not ‘qualifying’, yet it released cut-offs based on merit from the CBT exam, contradicting itself on the process.
Till date, no exam conducted by the Central government has had different cut-offs for different posts in the preliminary stage. This process is after the CBT-2 exam. They have tweeted this clarification to suppress student voices, to provide lip service to our cause.
Now, the CBT-2 is scheduled for 28 August and hopes ride on the RRB to act on the grievances of thousands of aspirants around the country before it’s too late.
(The author is an RRB JE aspirant from Dehradun and wishes to stay anonymous. All 'My Report' branded stories are submitted by citizen journalists to The Quint. Though The Quint inquires into the claims/allegations from all parties before publishing, the report and the views expressed above are the citizen journalist's own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for the same.)
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