Special Class Railway Apprentices’ Examination on Jan 20

Special Class Railway Apprentices’ Examination, for selection of candidates for appointment as Special Class Apprentices in Mechanical Department of Indian Railways will be held by the Union Public Service Commission on  20thJanuary, 2013 at Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bareily, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cuttack, Dehradun, Delhi, Dharwar, Dispur, Gangtok, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu, Jorhat, Kochi, Kohima, Kolkata, Panaji (Goa), Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Raipur, Ranchi, Sambalpur, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Udaipur and Vishakhapatnam.

The approximate number of vacancies, tobe filled on the results of the examination is 42.One vacancy is reserved for physicallychallenged candidates belonging to Orthopaedically Handicapped having functional classifications OA. Seats will be reserved for SC/ST/OBC/PD categories as per Government rules. Applicant must generally be a citizen of India. Clarifications on this are available in the detailed Notification published at www.upsc.gov.in.

Applicant must have attained the ageof 17 years and must not have attained theage of 21 years on 1st January, 2013 (Must have been born not earlier than2ndJanuary, 1992 and not later than 1stJanuary, 1996).The upper age limit is relaxable upto a maximum of five years for SC/ST applicants,upto a maximum of three years in thecase of candidates belonging to OtherBackward Classes who are eligible toavail of reservation applicable to suchcandidates. More details on relaxation in age and the categories eligible for it can be had from the Notification.

Applicant must have passed in the first or second division, the Higher Secondary (12 years) Examination under 10 + 2 pattern of School Education with Mathematics and at least one of Physics and Chemistry as subjects of the examination or in the first or second division, the Intermediate or an equivalent Examination of a University or Board approved by the Government of India with Mathematics and at least one of Physics and Chemistry as subjects of the examination. Graduates with Mathematics and at least one of Physics and Chemistry as their degree subjects may also apply.

Those who have passed the first year Examination under the three year Degree course of a University can also apply. Candidates who have passed the first/second year examination under the three-year Degree course in the first or second division with Mathematics and either Physics or Chemistry as subjects of the Examination may also apply; provided the first/ second year examination is conducted by a University. Candidates who have passed some other examination can also apply. The details are available in the Notification.

Applicant must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Special Class Railway Apprentices, Examination, 2013 as per Regulations given in Appendix-II of the rules for the Special Class Railway Apprentices, Examination, 2013 published in Gazette of India dated 13th October, 2012.

Fee: There is no application fee for Female/SC/ST/PH applicants. Others are required to pay a fee of Rs. 100/- either by depositing the money in any Branch of SBI by Cash or by using net banking facility of SBI, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur/State Bank of Hyderabad/State Bank of Mysore/State Bank of Patiala/State Bank of Travancore or by using Visa/Master Credit/Debit Card. Details are available at http://upsconline.nic.in/faq.php

How to Apply : Application can be submitted only Online at www.upsconline.nic.in up to 11.59 pm on 12th November, 2012 after which, the link will be disabled.Detailed instructions for filling up online applications are available here. Only one application should be submitted by an applicant. However, if an applicant submits another/multiple applications, due to any unavoidable reasons, then he/she must ensure that application with the higher Registration ID (RID) is complete in all respects like applicant’s details, examination centre, photograph, signature, fee etc. In respect of applicants who submit multiple applications, only the applications with higher RID will be entertained by the Commission. The fee paid against one RID will not be adjusted against any other RID.

Applications of those applicants in whose case, payment details are not received from the bank,will be treated as fictitious payment cases. Such applications will be rejected in the first instance. A list of all such applicants will be made available on the Commission website within two weeks after the lastday of submission of online application.The applicants should submitproof of payment of fee within 10days from the date of such communication either by hand or by Speed Post to theCommission. On receipt of documentaryproof, genuine fee payment cases will beconsidered and their applications will berevived, if they are otherwise eligible.

Admit Card: The eligible candidates will be issued an e-Admission Certificate three weeks before the commencement of the examination. The e-Admission Certificate will be made available at www.upsc.gov.infor downloading by candidates. No admission Certificate will be sent by post. For downloading the e-Admission certificate the candidate will have to provide some details related to the candidate.

If a candidate does not receive his/her e-Admission Certificate/e-admit card or any other communication regarding his/her candidature for the examination 3 weeks before the commencement of the Examination, he/she should at once contact the Commission.

Examination: The Examination will have two parts. Part I will be a Written Examination having 3 papers carrying a maximum of 600 marks. Paper-I will be General Ability Test with questions from English, General Knowledge and a Psychological Test, Paper-II will be Physical Sciences with questions from Physics and Chemistry and Paper-III will be Mathematics. Each paper will be of two hours duration and each will carry 200 marks. The papers in all the subjects will consist of Objective, multiple choice answer type questions only.

The Question Papers (Test Booklets) will be set in English only. Question Papers will be approximately of the Intermediate standard. Detailed syllabus is available at http://www.upsc.gov.in/exams/notifications/2013/scra/eng.pdf. Wrong answers will lead to loss of marks. For both writing and marking answers in the OMR sheet [Answer Sheet], candidates must use black ball pen only. The Commission will fix qualifying marks in any or all the subjects of the examination. Candidates are not permitted to use calculators for answering objective type papers (Test Booklets).

Part II will be Personality Test carrying a maximum of 200 marks in respect of only those candidates who are declared qualified on the results of Written Examination.

Candidates are requested to keep ready the attested copies of documents listed below, for submission to the Commission soon after the declaration of the result of the written part of the Examination in the month of March/April, 2013. (i) Certificate of Age (ii) Certificate of Educational Qualification indicating the subjects and division secured (iii) Certificate in support of claim to belong to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes where applicable (iv) Certificate in support of claim for age/fee concession, where applicable (v) Certificate in support of being physically handicapped (where applicable)

Conditions of selection: A candidate selected as a Special Class Railway Apprentice, will have to execute an agreement to refund, any money paid to him/her and any other money expended by Government on him/her, in the event of his/her failing to complete training as a Special Class Railway Apprentices or to accept the service as an officer on probation in the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, if offered to him/her. The continuance of apprenticeship from year to year will depend on satisfactory reports being received from the authorities under whom the apprentices may be working.

The practical and theoretical training will be given in a Railway Workshop for four years of their apprenticeship. They must pass the Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra (Ranchi) within this period. The apprentices will be granted a stipend of Rs. 9100/- per month during the 1stand 2ndyears, Rs 9400/- per month during the 3rdyear and first six months of 4thyear and Rs 9700 for last six months of 4thyear. There will be in all Eight Semester Examinations passing each of which is compulsory.   After the completion of 4thyear of training, theapprentices will be listed in order of merit on the results of the examination held andthe reports of the apprentices received during the period of apprenticeship. Successfulapprentices will be appointed on probation for 18 months in the Indian Railway Serviceof Mechanical Engineers.More details are available in the detailed notification at http://www.upsc.gov.in/exams/notifications/2013/scra/eng.pdf