Guwahati, Dec. 5: Railway recruitment in Assam came under a cloud again with allegations about a questionpaper leak and bias against resident candidates doing the rounds during a written test in 281 centres across the state .

Today, a candidate sitting for the test at Guwahati?s Sonaram School was caught with a sample questionpaper that almost matched the actual one. The candidate, identified as Dil Hussain, claimed to have bought the paper for Rs 100 from two persons. The deal was apparently struck near the examination centre.

Northeast Frontier Railway Recruitment Board chairman J.J. Bora admitted the paper contained about 40 per cent of the questions included in the real one, but said it was not a ?leak?. He said the examination passed off peacefully, barring ?stray incidents?. Hussain was handed over to the police on charges of cheating.

?There is no question of cancelling the exams. It (the alleged question-paper leak) was only a stray incident and the culprit is in police custody,? Bora said.

As many as 94,125 candidates had applied for 2,720 Grade IV posts in the railways, but only an estimated 60 per cent sat for the test. The recruitment test was originally slated for November 9 and 16 last year but was postponed in the wake of the clashes between members of Assamese and Bihari communities over allegations of bias on the part of the railways in favour of candidates from Bihar.

The influential All Assam Students? Union (AASU) has demanded cent per cent job reservation in all local offices of central undertakings in Grades III and IV.

AASU president Probin Boro said the students? union was not pleased with the recruitment process and it would soon meet to decide its future course of action to protect the interests of local candidates. The AASU had deputed volunteers today to monitor the examination process.

Boro claimed that the railways held examinations for the posts under NF Railway in Rajasthan and Bihar as well. ?This is merely a ploy to deprive candidates from Assam,? he argued. Pointing to the ?low turnout?, Boro accused NF Railway of deliberately sending interview letters to wrong addresses.

?Many candidates could not appear for their exams as the letters did not reach them. The letters must be lying in post offices as they had wrong addresses,? he alleged. The AASU also flayed the Tarun Gogoi government for not pursuing its earlier demand for job reservations with the Centre any more.

Reservations had been sought for Grade III and IV employees in central undertakings based in Assam. ?The state government has conveniently forgotten its demand after the UPA government came to power,? Boro said.

On Friday, at least 150 people were injured in stampedes during simultaneous police recruitment rallies as lakhs of job-seekers jostled and trampled each other in a mad rush to join the constabulary. Over five lakh unemployed had applied for 5,464 posts.