After exam paper leak row, Railways tighten recruitment safeguards | India News

Only a couple of months after a nationwide uproar over the question paper leaks in the NEET-UG medical entrance examinations took the country by storm, forcing the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the first set of recruitments to government jobs with the Railways has been announced.

 

In October 2026, the Ministry of Railways announced vacancies for about 5,000 posts. The advertisements for these posts make it clear that the Railways has put in place stringent criteria for these openings, mostly graduate-level vacancies that are termed “Non-Technical Popular Categories”.  These include Chief Commercial-cum-Ticket Supervisor, Goods Train Manager, Junior Accounts Assistant-cum-Typist, Senior Clerk-cum-Typists, and even Station Masters, among others.

  

The recruitment process is no cakewalk, though. At 46 printed pages, from about 21 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), each advertisement resembles a tender document, at 46 odd printed pages, with stringent criteria.

 

Given the stakes involved, where each post draws applications from about 1,000 candidates, the caution is warranted. For instance, for the post of station masters, the application book notes “Candidates are advised, in their own interest, to authenticate their identity using Digi locker or Aadhaar”, and warns that “If applicants verify their identity and other primary details with alternate Photo IDs, they will be subjected to significantly stricter & more detailed scrutiny at every stage of the recruitment process”.

 

“The (Cockroach Janata Party) agitation has made us carefully review all the provisions in the advertisements,” a former chief of one of the RRBs told Business Standard.

 

Interestingly, the second stage of the two-tiered exam does not have a separate provision for differential marking on the basis of caste, either. “The candidates need to secure a minimum… in each of the test batteries to qualify. This is applicable to all candidates irrespective of community or category i.e. irrespective of SC/ST/OBC-NCL/EWS/ExSM and no relaxation in the minimum T- Score is permissible,” the recruitment ad says.  

 

Examinations for government services have become one of the most contested areas for India’s young demographic. Perceived job security and income indexed to inflation has created a potent cocktail that attracts lakhs of students every year to these jobs.

 

This, in turn, has sprouted an entire industry alive to the prospect of gaming the process. While plenty of departments face this risk, the Railways face it disproportionately since various arms of the organisation recruit more than 50,000 people every year.

 

Shortly before the Covid pandemic hit, the Railways had decided to relax the level of qualification required for most of these jobs to that of Class 10, instead of the stiffer ITI diplomas. This immediately expanded the universe of potential candidates from 6 million to nearly 63 million.

 

At the time, the Railways had argued that most of their Group C and D posts did not need the candidates with more than a Class 10 level education. This relaxed route is the one RRBs are taking, including those for station masters, a position that oversees a significant capital asset.

 

The popularity of the RRB exams have often led to protests by candidates who did not make the cut for the actual examination. In fact, in 2022, the Railways had to conduct an outreach programme to connect with aspirants who were protesting in Patna and other cities against what they claimed were irregularities in the selection process.

 

Consequently, the restrictions this time are as onerous as they are numerous. There is a one-page set of rules on how candidates should click and upload their photographs. It covers every possible eventuality and is far stricter than, say, visa photo requirements for overseas travel. In fact, the advisory says that a “candidate’s appearance during the entire process of recruitment must match the photograph submitted with the application”.

 

The live application process has again been made possible because for several years, the RRBs, like other government recruitment bodies, have also done away with paper-based applications. In fact, the restrictions placed by the RRBs are possibly stricter than those for the civil services examinations, which is not surprising given the scale of interest in these exams.