Prayagraj,

05 March (HS): Today, a high level

meeting was conducted by the Railway Board. It has been decided that all

departmental promotion examinations will be done by RRB / centralised

examination through CBT. All zonal railways will make a calendar for the

examination. All the examinations will be conducted on the basis of a calendar

only. This has been decided after a long experience of transparent, fair, and

highly appreciated examinations conducted by RRB in recent years.

How

RRB used to conduct examination without any complaints, with all the

transparency: From 2015 to till date more than 7 crores candidates have been

examined through computer based tests without any Paper leakage, Impersonation,

Remote Log-in, and use of Spy devices.

How

was it possible? Selection of exam conducting agency, Open tender and Criteria

QCBS

ISO

certifications, financials, CERT-IN certifications, CMMI certification

Minimum

eligibility criteria – number of centers, past experience,

Examination

centre auditing by Railway team: Auditing checklist for all the available

facilities – bathroom outside not allowed, 100% CCTV coverage and recording

starts 2 hours pre-exam and 1 hour post exam . IP based CCTV surveillance for

better resolution, reliable and uninterrupted connection. Isolation from commercial

and other residential area, minimum 250 nodes capacity centers are being taken.

Infrastructure with power backup

Technical

specification – Server: CPU speed should be 1.5 GHz or higher, RAM should be 4

GB or higher, screen resolutions should be 1024×768.

Nodes:

RAM should be 2 GB or higher, rest same as server, USB disabled, proxy

disabled, internet disabled and keyboard disabled after login.

Proprietary

Operating System: All mouse and key clicks to be recorded with time stamp for

audit purpose. Information about city of exam is disclosed about ten days

before the actual date of examination. Venue/centre of examination is made

available only four days before the exam. Exam centre is allotted through a

computerized randomized generation avoiding manual intervention. Inside the

centre, the allotment of lab and the nodes including buffer nodes, all are

automated, randomized generated. Conducting team and the centre people get the

information about the candidate just two hours before the examination. In the

examination centers, checking & frisking of candidates is done with

Hand-held metal detectors

Biometric

attendance (both LTI and digital) is taken before entry & mid of exam and

after every bio break. Also a handwriting sample is taken. This process is

repeated at all the stages of examination and at the time of document

verification. Aadhaar based Authentication is done at exam centre.

N:N

comparison – comparison of across shifts, across events for identifying solvers

gangs

Question

paper is in highly encrypted form (256-bit encryption). Last minute decryption

happens only when the candidate actually logs in. No two candidates get the

same sequence of questions and options for each question. Everything is

randomized and shuffled. There is a complete log maintained for each activity

performed by the candidate which determines how he has attempted the questions.

Three

separate layers of Invigilation: ECA team invigilation, Railway invigilation by

Officers and Supervisors, Surprise check by Railway vigilance team, 1st and 2nd

teams are shuffled periodically between labs and centers. As a result, a number

of candidates involving in some kinds of malpractice/unfair means are being

regularly caught.

Eligibility

criteria: all the critical data of eligibility e.g. caste, certificate number,

mobile number, marks of identifications, photograph and signature, date of

birth, and qualification clearly defined and captured. Application will have QR

code to detect fake applications.

Admit

cards will have a barcode to establish the genuineness of the candidate.

In

Computer Based Tests (CBTs), candidates are shown their Question paper, Answer

Booklets along with correct Answer Keys. They are also given an opportunity to

raise objection regarding correctness of questions and answer keys, if any.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi