Thiruvananthapuram: The Railways has reintroduced Malayalam on the list of languages that applicants can choose from to take tests for Group D employees.
The decision follows massive protests, including that of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The railway ministry's Feb 10 notification had listed only Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia and Bengali as the medium of exams, besides English, Hindi and Urdu.
Candidates from the Southern Railways zone were allowed to choose Tamil or Telugu, but not Malayalam, even though the Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad divisions were part of it.
Candidates can apply until March 12. It has also extended the upper age limit for all categories by two years in the massive recruitment drive for 90,000 employees in group C and D.
The upper age limit for assistant loco pilots and technicians and 62,907 Group D posts has gone up from 28 years to 30.
For OBCs it has been revised to 33 years from 31 and for the SC and ST 35 from 33.
