Sambalpur: A group of candidates, who appeared for the recruitment process for the post of civil constables, staged a protest and resorted to road blockade at the Kacheri Chowk near the office of the superintendent of police on Monday evening alleging irregularities in the selection list.

They alleged that they had qualified in the physical test and written examinations according to the list released by the department.

They alleged their names did not appear in the final selection list released by the department on September 16, which created suspicion in the selection process.

"Presuming that we would be appointed as constables in the police force, we celebrated our success with our friends," said Parakhit Kisan, a candidate. They alleged that the marks secured by them were decreased to show them as failed candidates. "How can all the rejected candidates get 11 marks?" said one of them.

The protestors demanded that either they should be given appointment or fresh examination should be conducted. Even some of them threatened to commit suicide. Later, the agitators were taken to the superintendent of police, Sanjeev Arora. Arora admitted that due to technical problem in the computer role numbers and marks secured by the candidates did not match. After the detection of the problem a fresh list was published.

For appointment of 61 civil constables, physical and written tests were conducted from July 7 to September 9.

The list of selected candidates was published on September 16.