When a Railway exam applicant entered the hall wearing what seemed a wig, the invigilator got suspicious. Since the wig looked puffed up, the invigilator did a search and detected a hidden Bluetooth device. It was an exam that forced Railway officials to don a sleuth’s hat.
Another day, a male candidate cleared the first-layer, hand-held, metal detector-frisking by hiding a small mobile phone right under the zip of his jeans, where the metal detector usually beeps and no one gets suspicious. But his luck ran out and he was nabbed when the phone slipped out as he sat on the bench, falling to the ground with a thud.
So high are the stakes to get ‘a permanent job’ that people adopt all sorts of “unofficial” strategies to get the best possible score — from attempts to get the questions, to various kinds of cheating.
The latest exam of the Railways was no different. As millions of students toiled hard to clear the exams, many used their ingenuity to find short cuts. However, alert Railway officials left no stone unturned to prevent untoward incidents.
Invigilators were sourced in equal halves from the exam conducting agency and Railway administration. “Questions were sent to the exam centre from the exclusive server just 30 minutes before the exam started,” says Angaraj Mohan, Executive Director-Staff, Railway Board.
And Railways was learning as it conducted the exams. Midway, the Railway Recruitment Board websites stopped posting examination centres on their websites. “In fact, even candidates were informed of their centres just a week before the exams,” discloses Sachidanand Agrawal, Member-Staff, Railway Board.
Checking candidates is no less stringent than that done at airports. “Candidates are frisked with hand-held metal detector device to identify Bluetooth or other devices,” says Mohan.
All those steps may not have stopped candidates from trying harder at finding new ways to cheat. Till early December, 229 had been nabbed — 72 from Bihar and 70 from UP. Railways has filed FIRs against them. Of the 229, 175 were imposters, 30 were hiding chits or mobiles, and 24 were carrying Bluetooth devices.
“To prevent impersonation, we take biometric attendance and tally the face on the application. We also capture the thumb impression, which we tally after the candidate is selected. Moreover, the exam is recorded on CCTV,” says Mohan.
Sometimes, the security procedures caused inconvenience. Candidates who left stuff like belts outside the hall couldn’t find them later. One candidate hid his ring in a tree before going in.
This spawned a business of sorts, with some people volunteering to keep safe students’ belongings, for a fee of ₹50. After the exams, in one of the Ghaziabadcentres, applicants rushed in droves to the tin-shed outside to collect the valuables they had deposited. This is a small price they were ready to pay for the chance of a life-time of financial security.