RRB exams from December 15, candidates to be checked for body temp

New Delhi: All candidates appearing in the Indian Railways' examinations from December 15 onwards to fill up 1.4 lakh vacancies would have to undergo body temperature checks before they were allowed into examination centres, a railway official said on Friday.

Addressing a virtual press conference here, Railway Board Director General (HR) Anand S Khati said: "Candidates with high temperature will not be allowed inside."

The official said that intimation regarding this would be sent to candidates and exam rescheduled for such candidates.

The Railways' mega recruitment drive in three phases would start from December 15, in which more than 2.44 crore candidates will appear across the country.

Khati said that the first phase of the exams would commence from December 15 to 18 for isolated and ministerial categories, followed by NTPC categories from December 28 till March 2021, and lastly for Level-1 one tentatively from April 2020 till June 2021.

He said that candidates in the first phase will be informed individually through email and SMSes about their city of exam, date and shift through a link provided on RRB official websites. He said that the links for downloading of e-call letter would be made live four days prior to the exam date on these websites.

The RRBs have made extensive preparations for conducting examinations on this large scale in Covid-19 pandemic times following SOPs as laid down by the government to ensure social distancing, compulsory use of masks, sanitisers, and exams in only two shifts per day.

He said efforts were afoot to ensure that candidates were accommodated in their own states as far as possible so that they can reach their exam centres by undertaking overnight journey. "Female and PWD candidates are accommodated within their home states. However, considering skewed distribution of candidates area-wise, there will be unavoidable interstate movements," Khati said.

The railways will run special trains to enable candidates to reach their exam centres, wherever required and feasible. "Chief Secretaries concerned have also been requested to extend the support of area administration to RRBs for conducting CBTs in secure and safe manner," he said.