Patna:The exam of Railway Recruitment Board's (RRB) Non-Technical Popular Category (NTPC) shook the entire nation with Bihar being the epicenter of it. The row turned violent and led to train bogies being set ablaze in several districts of the state.
The RRB NTPC had decided to conduct exams in two sessions but the students were saying that it was unfair to ask for two exams as only one exam was mentioned in the notification of 2019.
Students also raised the issue of irregularities in the shortlisting criteria, level-wise and post-wise. They also accused that, instead of issuing 20-times more candidates with respect to the vacancies, in CBT-II, RRB issued 20-times more roll numbers. Protesting students also have reservations over cut-off marks and RRB's decision to have the same recruitment process for 10+2 and graduate candidates. Students were also annoyed that all these issues would lead to further delays in job recruitment.
For the last one week, the state was burning and reports of vandalism were reported in various districts and even in neighboring states like Uttar Pradesh. Stones were pelted on the running trains and several other trains were blocked by the agitating students who had appeared for the exam.
Bihar, home to a majority of the job aspirants, saw violent protests. On 24 January, the protesters had gathered at the Rajendra Nagar Terminus in the afternoon. They were alleging discrepancies in the result of an exam conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board. When the train services hit the Rajendra Nagar station, the Patna Police had to use batons to disperse the protestors. Thereafter, an FIR has been registered against the students.
Meanwhile, a crowd stormed the Gaya Junction and set on fire the Bhabhua-Patna InterCity Express. Protests were reported from Patna, Nawada, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Buxar, and Bhojpur districts.
The following day, at some places angry protesters blocked railway tracks, clashed with security forces, and vandalized railway property. In Sitamarhi, police fired in the air to disperse demonstrators at the railway station.
Earlier, the results of the RRB NTPC exams were released on January 14, 2022, for shortlisting the candidates for the CBT-2. Around 1.4 crore job-aspirants had appeared in the exam for 35,000 vacancies. However, candidates alleged erroneous exams and started protesting against them. The date of this exam was March 2020 but due to Corona, the exam was delayed.
Amid the protest, the railways issued a fresh notification on January 24 of this month for the recruitment of one lakh vacancies for Group -D. The row gained momentum when Khan Sir of Patna came into the picture. He is very popular on YouTube with 14.5 million subscribers and runs coaching institutes under the name of GS Research Coaching Center in Patna. He is famous for his teaching style as he adopts easy methods to impart education to students online.
He teaches current affairs and general studies for different recruitment exams including railways, defence, navy, banking, and many other competitive exams. It was believed that Khan Sir was behind provoking the students due to which an FIR was also lodged against him along with 15 other teachers. He had issued the statement that the railway had put an extra burden on the students who had already cleared the exam.
It was also alleged that the protesting students got a morale-booster after Khan Sir circulated a video on social media provoking students to intensify the agitation.
After the incident went out of control and protests took an ugly turn, a high power committee was formed by the Railways to look into the matter and clear the doubts raised by the students. The panel will give its recommendation by March 4, 2022, and will also accept the objections from the candidates till February 16, 2022.
The students who had appeared for the exam expressed their anguish over unemployment and claimed that the Group D exam had a tough question paper. “The Group-D level job is a low profile one in which we need to carry stone chips and do other low-end works. In such a case, the question paper has been very tough and it is on par with the UPSC examination. And also we don't trust the Union Minister for Railways who says that he will remove the CBT-2 level test. There is an election in Uttar Pradesh and who knows after the election they will again add this," lamented Naveen Kumar, an aspirant from Jamui district of Bihar.
Another student from Balia in Uttar Pradesh who was preparing in Bihar said that it's been four years since this exam and they were still struggling to get the results.
"The notification for this exam came in 2019 itself and it's been four years now and still the exam has not been cleared yet. The government is not thinking about our future and it's very hard to trust the Modi-led government who promised two crore jobs but nothing happened. If you combine both UP and Bihar, I don't think we can even touch the figure of 5 lakh jobs. I have one son and cannot even think about his future because I don't have a job. I am unable to control my tears while thinking about my family, “ said Manoj Singh.
Earlier, Bihar bandh was called by the students on January 26 and 28 but it ultimately turned into a political protest in which the leaders of the political parties were in action and students were missing.
Due to the protest, the RRB NTPC CBT 2 exam that was scheduled to be conducted in a single phase from February 15 to February 19 across the country at various places got postponed. Similarly, the Level 1 exam which was scheduled to begin on February 23, has also been postponed until further notice.
RRB-NTPC is the best platform for students eager to get jobs in the railways. Those who pass out Class 12 can also take this exam and also for those who have no technical knowledge.
RRB conducts the exam for the non-technical post too. Under this exam, one can get the job of the station master, assistant station master, junior accountant, typist, traffic assistant, senior clerk, and goods guard.
