More than 47.18 lakh candidates opted to use vernacular languages during their direct Railways recruitment exams in the past three years, with the highest number of candidates using Telugu, followed by Bengali and Marathi, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
“For examinations for direct recruitment, instructions provide for an option of 15 languages, which include Hindi and English and 13 vernacular languages,” Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal informed the Lok Sabha.
He said 55,209 opted for regional languages in 2019, while the number stood at over 46.62 lakh in 2018 and 876 in 2017, taking the total of past three years to more than 47.18 lakh candidates.
A majority of over 10.02 lakh candidates used Telugu language in the examinations, followed by 8.5 lakh using Marathi, 8.48 lakh using Bengali, 3.87 lakh using Tamil and 3.6 lakh using Gujarati.
