Railways to conduct recruitment drive for paramedical categories

New Delhi: The railways will conduct the largest recruitment drive for paramedical categories, including staff nurse and dietitians beginning Friday, the ministry said. The Computer Based Test (CBT) will be held for recruitment to 1,923 posts from July 19 to July 21. On each day there will be three shifts, a statement said. "In this recruitment drive, more than 4.39 lakh candidates will be taking the test which will be held in 345 test centres in 107 towns/cities across the country," it said. This is first recruitment by the railways in which reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) will be available to eligible candidates. Against 10 per cent of the total vacancies earmarked for EWS candidates, 4,654 EWS candidates will be appearing in the tests. The test will be of 90 minutes duration with 30 minutes extra for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBDs).

It will comprise questions from professional stream, general awareness, general arithmetic, general intelligence and reasoning and general science. There will be multiple choice objective questions. The questions of the test will be available in 15 different languages, including English and Hindi. The candidates can view the question in English and the language the candidate has opted as the medium of test.

The largest number of candidates who applied for this recruitment are from Uttar Pradesh (64,596) followed by Rajasthan (62,772), Maharashtra (38,097), Kerala (35,496). The noticeable feature of this recruitment is that female candidates outnumber male candidates at 62 per cent. Besides, there are also 28 transgender candidates in the fray. The selected candidates will be appointed, inter alia, to the post of staff nurse, dietician, health and malaria inspector, pharmacist, optometrist, and radiographer. More than 50 per cent candidates are appearing for the post of staff nurse.