Students stage a dharna in front of the Bihar Public Service Commission office in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 26: The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), conducting examination for state-level public servant officers, has now been caught on the wrong foot, being accused of committing mistakes in awarding of marks and in publication of results.

This time, the commission has been accused of not marking answers to eight questions of the total 150 questions set in the preliminary test (PT) examination paper held on April 17. The results for the examinations was declared on July 15.

The students alleged that out of 150 questions set in the examination, the commission declared that eight questions were wrongly set and hence, ignored during awarding marks.

However, the students held a different opinion. They alleged that of the eight questions deliberately ignored by the commission, many were correct and examinees those have attempted those should have been awarded marks.

The students today staged a protest with their grievances in front of the BPSC office, demanding inclusion of the eight questions, omitted by the BPSC, in the marking of the scripts. However, BPSC chairman RJM Pillai said: “Till now, students have not approached us with the plea.”

Later in the day, the students led by union members met BPSC secretary Sharad Chandra Jha and apprised him of their problems. He assured the students that he would raise the matter with members of BPSC, as the decision to remove the eight questions was taken by experts who had set the question papers.

However, Jha assured the delegation that BPSC will refund the money collected from students for issuing admit cards. Earlier, BPSC has collected Rs 50 from each student for issuing admit cards to students by post but in the last hour, students were asked to get information about their examination centres and date of examination on the Internet.

The students also alleged large-scale anomalies in declaration of results and also violation of the reservation policy of the state government in its declaration.

According to Ajay Kumar Gupta, who appeared in the BPSC PT, question number 91 stated: “Congress passed the Swaraj resolution in the year 1905. The purpose of the resolution was what.” Gupta said: “The correct answer to the above question should have been “to serve self-rule”, but the question was removed by the commission, as it considered the poser wrong.

Moreover, another question asked: “When was Madras Mahajan Sabha established?”. “Though the correct answer was given in the options but it was also marked as a wrong question by the commission,” said another student, Rajmohan Mitra, who too had appeared in the PT.

BPSC holds combined civil services examination every year. This time, BPSC conducted the 53rd, 54th and 55th examinations for recruitment of officers under the state civil service examinations at a single go.