Railways may cancel exams held in Nagpur, Solapur

In the wake of the question paper leak unearthed by CBI and the subsequent arrest of Mumbai recruitment board chairman SM Sharma, the railway ministry may cancel the examinations held in Nagpur and Solapur earlier this month.

It is also likely to prune the powers and responsibilities of railway recruitment board chairmen and create a checks-and-balance system so that such incidents are not repeated. It also plans to come up with a mechanism within a week to prevent corruption in recruitment.

A top ministry official said examinations in Mumbai centres will be cancelled. “We are waiting for the CBI report on the matter,” he said.

“We have given too much responsibility to the chairmen. They should not have so much access to everything and therefore, we are putting in necessary checks and balances in the examination system to prevent leakage of question papers,” Vivek Sahai, railway board chairman, said. “Who knew that the person
entrusted with the conduct of the examinations would turn out to be a traitor,” he said.

Earlier, there were problems such as question paper leaks in transit. “A lot of screening was done but there is still excessive dependence on chairmen,” Sahai said.

The railways is conducting an internal audit to find loopholes in the recruitment process. “We are concentrating on the manner in which the question papers are prepared and distributed,” Sahai said. 

Meanwhile, the aspirants in other centres may heave a sigh of relief. “The question papers in other centres were different, so there is no need to panic,” another ministry official said.