Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criticized the Railway Department for suddenly canceling promotion exams for railway employees. The cancellation came after protests by Kannada organizations over the lack of an option to write the test in Kannada. This decision affected exams for 194 Goods Train Manager posts and 101 Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) posts.
Siddaramaiah expressed disappointment at the cancellation, stating that it left Kannada employees uncertain. He highlighted that the Railway Department ignored the objections raised by thousands of Kannada-speaking railway employees regarding the language issue. The Chief Minister emphasized that if the exams had allowed Kannada as a language option, the confusion and difficulties faced by Kannada employees could have been avoided.
The Chief Minister further criticized the Railway Department for not addressing the language concern earlier. He mentioned that the cancellation of the exams at the last moment was unnecessary and could have been prevented. Siddaramaiah also raised concerns about discrimination faced by Kannada job aspirants in various Central government exams due to a perceived bias towards Hindi.
Siddaramaiah urged the Central government to rectify the situation and ensure that Kannada-speaking candidates are not unfairly treated in future exams. He called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and provide clear directives to the relevant departments. The Chief Minister demanded a prompt rescheduling of the cancelled railway exams, with the provision for candidates to write them in Kannada.
