Hundreds of job aspirants from Tamil Nadu disappointed as RRB cancels exam at the last minute

The last-minute cancellation of Computer-Based Test II for the recruitment of Assistant Loco Pilots by the Railway Recruitment Board on Wednesday (March 19, 2025) left hundreds of job aspirants from Tamil Nadu in the lurch in Hyderabad.

The last-minute cancellation of Computer-Based Test II for the recruitment of Assistant Loco Pilots by the Railway Recruitment Board on Wednesday (March 19, 2025) left hundreds of job aspirants from Tamil Nadu in the lurch in Hyderabad.

The job aspirants endured numerous difficulties, including sleepless travel in crowded unreserved coaches for more than 20 hours from various parts of Tamil Nadu to reach Hyderabad on short notice, all with the hope of fulfilling their dream of securing a railway job. Not just their pain, but the huge expenses incurred for travel, food, and accommodation also went to waste as they were met with locked gates at the exam centre in Hyderabad.

The Computer-Based Test II was scheduled to be held at 2.30 p.m. As the engineering graduates started arriving at their respective examination centres at the reporting time of 12.30 p.m., they were not allowed into the campus.

“We were shocked to hear an announcement over the public address system that the examination had been cancelled,” said a youth from Madurai. The candidates, however, stood outside the centre for more than an hour just to confirm that the announcement was genuine.

“Hundreds of us began travelling from different districts in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday (March 18, 2025) morning to reach Chennai. We took another train to reach Hyderabad. After at least 20 hours of travel and spending a lot of money, the officials made an announcement of cancellation at the last minute,” another youth from Tiruchi district said.

The youngsters said around 50,000 candidates had appeared for CPT-I conducted by RRB Chennai and RRB Thiruvananthapuram, in Tamil Nadu. “Around 6,000 of us who got shortlisted for CPT-II were allocated centres outside Tamil Nadu. This is the root cause of all the trouble we have faced today,” a youth said.

For the exam that was to be held on Wednesday, the hall tickets were issued only on Saturday (March 15, 2025), the aspirants said. “We could not even get train tickets. The railway authorities could have at least operated special trains to help us, as thousands of us were travelling to Hyderabad, Secunderabad, and Vijayawada,” one of the candidates said