GUWAHATI, Oct 18 - Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has categorically denied any discrepancy or wrongdoing during the recent recruitment of around 900 candidates for grade-IV posts under the Lumding Railway Division.
NFR officials said that the selection procedure followed was as per the Central government�s guidelines and all the candidates were selected on the basis of merit.
�The Railway Recruitment Board follows the procedure laid down by the Central government. There is an open competition. Computerised evaluation sheets are used for the exams and there is no scope for human interference. The recruitment was merit-based,� Subhanan Chanda, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of NFR, said today.
He added that the recruitment was carried out after publishing advertisements in newspapers as well as through various concerned websites.
�There is no provision for reservation for candidates of any specific region or state in railway jobs. The recruitment is done at an all-India level,� Chanda added.
It is noteworthy that the Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, had recently spoken out against the latest recruitment by the railways. Citing reports, Saikia had said that about 899 candidates from outside Assam, primarily from states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana, have been �surreptitiously recruited� for grade-IV posts under the Lumding Railway Division at the cost of depriving eligible local unemployed youth.
The Congress leader had written a letter to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in this regard and urged him �to take bold steps to have the partisan and irregular recruitment process scrapped.�
