Scores of JPSC aspirants on Tuesday stood with lit candles beside the Jharkhand Public Service Commission office at Circular Road here on Day Two of the ongoing Mains of sixth civil services exam, demanding the test be postponed till graft allegations clouding the process are addressed.
Though the second day went off peacefully like the first at all 58 exam centres in Ranchi, examinee morale was low. Some aspirants decided to drop out on Tuesday, alleging certain discoveries made them realise this was not a “fair exam”.
An aspirant said he withdrew from the Mains though it made his family unhappy. “Yesterday (Monday), I found a cross mark on one of the questions, which means they had been tampered. Aren’t question papers supposed to be kept in sealed envelopes and opened inside the exam hall? When I pointed out the mark to the invigilator, he took it lightly. It’s obvious the JPSC exam won’t be fair. So, what’s the point?”
His friend added, “Now the court is hearing this case and its fate is uncertain. I will never appear in any JPSC exam.”
Another aspirant said he was answering the Mains but found the questions “around UG level”. “On Tuesday, we answered a combined history and geography paper. But it seemed a novice had set the questions. In civil services exams of other states, questions are tricky. Here, they are too easy to be a recruitment test for officers,” he said.
Charges against the state commission include picking too many students from December 2016 prelims to sit for the Mains for too few posts, JPSC employees allegedly appearing in the Mains and bona fide aspirants not getting admit cards.
The six-paper, five-day Mains started on Monday on a stormy note with Speaker Dinesh Oraon castigating the government in the Assembly for its silence over alleged graft in JPSC exams and Chief Justice Aniruddha Bose ordering results be published only after the court gave its nod.
