Indian Railways job promotion exams: The Railway Board‘s new directive mandates that departmental promotion assessments will be administered through centralised examinations. As per officials familiar with this change, assessments will be exclusively Computer Based Tests (CBT), requiring all zonal railways to establish examination schedules. The Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) will receive authorisation to conduct these assessments.
“A high-level meeting has taken the decision to switch to centralised exams for promotions,” a senior official told ET while adding that question papers will be in highly encrypted form (256-bit encryption).
Examination teams nationwide will receive candidate information just two hours before the assessment commences.
“In the examination centres, checking and frisking of candidates will be done with Hand-held metal detectors…all mouse and key clicks to be recorded with time stamp for audit purpose,” the official said while adding there will be regular examination centre auditing by Railway teams.
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Regarding RRB’s expertise in managing large-scale assessments, the official noted, “More than seven crore candidates have been examined through CBT without any paper leakage, impersonation, remote Log-in, and use of spy devices from 2015 onwards.
Following the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) discovery of an examination paper leak scandal at the East Central Railway (ECR) in Mughal Sarai, these measures were implemented. This week, the agency apprehended 26 railway officials, including 17 candidates, and seized Rs. 1.17 crore in cash. The funds were allegedly collected from candidates in exchange for leaked question papers.
The arrested departmental candidates currently serve as loco pilots with the Indian Railways. They were caught during the raid with advanced copies of question papers, for which they had reportedly provided payment.
“Last minute decryption will now happen only when the candidate actually logs in,” the official detailing the reforms said.
