Ranchi, Jan. 13: A sudden relaxation in the cut-off marks in the first Jharkhand Eligibility Test (JET) as resulted in 176 more candidates qualifying for the appointment of lecturers in colleges across the state.

The UGC representatives — UGC-NET joint secretary M.V. Krishnaswami and UGC-Ucat member B. Muniamma — had recommended 591 candidates as successful during the moderation committee meeting yesterday.

But today, during the steering committee meeting, they brought down the cut-off marks in five subjects — Hindi, economics, geography, anthropology and history. As a result a total of 767 cleared the exam in 17 subjects. However, no candidate could qualify in chemistry.

About 17,000 candidates had taken the tests conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission in November last year.

Commission secretary Alice Usha Rani Singh said they are thankful to the UGC representatives for lowering the cut-off marks on the request of other members of the steering committee. They had requested that this is the first eligibility test of the state and there are many vacancies in universities and colleges.

The UGC accepted the request and lowered the cut-off marks in five subjects in which the maximum number of candidates had appeared, she said.

She said according to the moderation committee recommendations, only 89 candidates had qualified in Hindi, 62 in economics, 15 in geography, 12 in anthropology and 56 in history, but lowering the cut-off marks resulted in 102 qualifying in Hindi, 96 in economics, 59 in geography, 17 in anthropology and 136 in history.

A total of 56 candidates qualified in English, 35 in tribal and regional languages, two in Bengali, 16 in Sanskrit, 10 in Urdu, 22 in philosophy, 68 in political science, 21 in psychology, 10 in mathematics, 11 in physics, 54 in life sciences (botany and zoology) and 52 in commerce.

Singh said all applicants had taken examinations of two papers of their subject. Only those who obtained minimum qualifying marks in the two papers were asked to write the third paper.

Usually, the success rate of the national/state eligibility test is less than 5 per cent. According to UGC norms, only a NET/JET-qualified candidate or PhD scholars (doctorates) can be appointed lecturer in colleges or universities. There are over 1,000 vacancies in the three state universities and their constituent colleges.