Bhubaneswar, May 15: A teacher recruitment examination here was marred by protests of aspirants who alleged mismanagement and lack of infrastructure at an exam centre here today.

The National Bureau of Professional Training (NBPT), a non-profit organisation, was conducting the written test for its teacher recruitment drive at a private school in Kharavela Nagar. However, the aspirants alleged that the centre's infrastructure was not fit to conduct the exam.

The NBPT was conducting the examination through another agency to recruit senior, junior and associate teachers for the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Education Programme. Around 500 aspirants from across the state had registered to take the examination.

The examination was scheduled to begin at 9.30am. However, it began at 10am. To add to it, the aspirants alleged that there was thorough mismanagement at the centre.

"Some of the question papers were just scanned copies of handwritten sheets. There were no attendance sheets on which we could write our names. There was no space on the answer sheets to write down our names and roll numbers either," said Udayan Mohanty, an aspirant.

The aspirants also alleged that the agency conducting the examination allowed mobile phones into the centre. "The OMR sheets were colour photocopies. A few candidates already had the answers on their phones. This is a national-level examination and we could not imagine the way the examination was handled," said another candidate.

Later, police reached the spot and brought officials of the examination conducting agency to the police station for questioning. However, they denied any negligence on their part. "I was assigned the task of conducting the exam. The recruiter had sent the questions through email and I subsequently printed those. After the protests, I called their office in Delhi and they told me to postpone the examination. I do not have any role in making the answer sheets or question papers," said Sandeep Rout, the owner of the agency.

Kharavela Nagar police station inspector in charge Sanjeev Satpathy said they had received a complaint from the candidates. "We are interrogating the agency officials," he said.