Railways eases norms for candidates under mega-recruitment plan

The railway ministry on Thursday said it has made changes with respect to certain criteria so that more aspiring candidates from all sections of society get opportunity to work for Indian Railways.

It has restored age relaxation for various categories of candidates by further extending the relaxation by 2 more years.

For non-exempt candidates who have to pay Rs500 as examination fees, Rs400 will be refunded if they appear for the exam.

Educational qualifications criteria for Level I will be class 10 or ITI or equivalent, again for this exam.

Question papers to candidates will be provided in 15 languages.

Candidates can now sign in any language instead of only in Hindi or English.

The railway ministry has announced one of the world's largest recruitment processes for 89,409 posts in Group C and Level I (Erstwhile Group D) and Level II categories. Since this recruitment process is taking place after a gap of four years, many changes proposed in the intervening years had been included this time. However, some of these changes had restricted many candidates from applying this year without any adequate information in advance.

Examination fees were levied to discourage non-serious candidates who apply and do not appear for the exam. This would save the Railways substantial amount of resources spent on setting up infrastructure to enable candidates to appear for exams.

Examination fees for recruitment were fixed at Rs500 for non-exempt candidates. It has now been decided that Rs400 will be refunded to those candidates who appear for the exam.

To enable refund of this amount, candidates will be required to submit details of their bank accounts online. This facility will be executed shortly.

Exempt categories like SC / ST / Divyang / Ex-servicemen / women / minorities / economically backward classes will be charged Rs250. The whole of this amount will be refunded to those candidates from these categories who appear for the exam.

Question papers to candidates will be provided in 15 languages – Hindi, English, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. This will ensure opportunities for candidates across India.

Candidates can now  sign in any language instead of only in Hindi or English. This will adequately reflect the diversity and plurality of India.