Madurai MP wants re-allocation of examinations centres to places within Tamil Nadu
Even as candidates from Tamil Nadu for the post of Station Master have expressed shock over Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) fixing exam centres in far-off places such as Prayagraj (Allahabad) and Jammu and Kashmir, the board has clarified that the need for massive infrastructure facility for conducting computer-based test in single shift exam for all the candidates of all the RRBs had necessiated the move.
A candidate from Tirunelveli, who has been asked to appear for the second stage of exam in Mysuru on May 9, is perplexed over the long distance travel. "All the information I have is that the centre is in Mysuru. The actual examination centre would be announced only few days before the exam. I do not know how far it would be from Mysuru railway station," he said.
The candidate said that many candidates, including women, have voiced their concern over the location of the examination centre in far-off States, in their WhatsApp group. "We will have language problem and also do not know the topography. Our botheration is that our three years of struggle in preparing for this exam should not go in vain because of the centres in unknown territories," he said.
Another candidate said that they need to spend on their travel and also on accommodation. Women candidates need to incur additional expenditure, as they have to be escorted by a friend or family member while going outside the State. "I wonder why the location is outside Southern Railway, when our choice was only Chennai," he said.
He said that lakhs of candidates appeared for the first round of examination held in Tamil Nadu. " After having filtered most of them, and when candidates appearing for round 2 is only around 10%, RRB should have gone for more examination centres in the State," he said.
MP's concern
Madurai MP Su.Venkatesan has said that he could not understand the rationale behind this selective ear-marking of cities. " The gravity (of the situation) can be understood from the fact that a physically challenged candidate (from Tamil Nadu) has been provided a centre in Prayagraj," he said.
He termed this exercise as undemocratic since the application is only for RRB/Chennai in Southern Railway.
He appealed to the RRB to revise the centres to cities in Tamil Nadu.
Clarification
Meanwhile, a statement from Southern Railway has clarified the difficulties in conduct of the CBT due to infrastructure constraints.
The first stage CBT was held in seven phases. Based on the suggestion of the candidates, a high-level committee had recommended that the 2nd stage of CBT should be conducted in a single shift so that normalisation can be eliminated as candidates opposed that concept. Conducting exam in single shift eliminates normalisation as there will be one question paper only for all the candidates taking exams across India.
Stating that the RRB’s aim was to conduct the exam in an unbiased manner, the statement said that the phenomenon of allotment of centres outside the home States of candidates is common for all candidates of all RRBs and not restricted to those from Tamil Nadu alone as this is an all-India pattern.
However, a candidate claimed that when similar CBT was conducted for banking recruitment, the candidates were accommodated in Tamil Nadu by roping in more number of centres with required facilities.
