Itanagar: The People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) has called upon the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) to immediately adopt the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) pattern of conducting civil service exams in the state.

"The APPSC should begin by doing away with the outdated system of conducting preliminary examination where the candidates appear with different optional subjects. Instead, the UPSC pattern of a civil services aptitude test and a general studies paper should be made mandatory for all the candidates irrespective of their different academic backgrounds from the next examination," PPA president Kahfa Bengia said in a statement.

The party said this system would create a level playing field for all the candidates and would eliminate the chances of complaints that candidates have with the present outdated system like some of the papers being tougher or easier than the others.

"This change is the most essential to give a fresh image to the state's Public Service Commission," said Bengia.

The PPA also demanded immediate and necessary action to be taken against the firm/agency that was entrusted with the task of preparing the question papers for this year's Arunachal Pradesh Public Service combined Competitive (prelims) examination.

"Appropriate action should also be initiated against all others who were involved and responsible for entrusting the task to such a firm that has been found to be totally 'incompetent and non-professional'," the PPA president said.

The APPSC was this year once again under fire for alleged lapses in the recent examination process, with aspirants charging the commission with providing erroneous question papers and setting questions from a Pakistan resource website.

After receiving backlash from all ends, the commission on Friday cancelled the preliminary examination, which was held on November 26.