Patna, Dec 18 (IANS) The controversy surrounding the 70th Combined Competitive Examination prelims of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has escalated into a major protest by candidates here, on Wednesday, demanding the cancellation of the examination.
While the BPSC has cancelled the exam at the Bapu Examination Complex Centre in Patna due to issues like delayed question paper delivery, candidates are now questioning the integrity of the entire examination process.
On December 13, the examination at this centre was disrupted due to a delay in receiving the question paper.
Of the 12,000 candidates, only 5,500 OMR sheets were submitted, raising suspicions about the transparency and fairness of the exam.
The BPSC has cancelled the examination at the Bapu Examination Complex, but it has declared the exams at the remaining 911 centres as fair.
Hundreds of students gathered at the Gardanibagh protest site in Patna, demanding that the entire exam be cancelled and re-conducted.
These students have described their protest as "Chhatra Satyagraha" (Student Struggle), with the slogan "One slogan, one demand -- re-exam, re-exam".
Dilip Kumar, a student leader, voiced strong support for the protesting candidates.
"Not only should the exam at the Patna centre be cancelled, but the entire examination should be scrapped, and a new one conducted with full transparency. We demanded that the BPSC should release CCTV footage from all the other 911 centres to ensure that the exams were conducted fairly," Kumar said.
Dilip Kumar and other protesters have raised concerns that the BPSC has failed to demonstrate the transparency of the examination process.
While only one centre's exam was cancelled, the students fear that similar issues might have occurred at other centres, which have yet to be investigated or made public.
Protestors are demanding that the BPSC cancel the examination held on December 13 and conduct a fresh examination.
Dilip Kumar has called for a high-level investigation into the entire exam process, stating that it should be carried out under the supervision of a retired judge of the Supreme Court.
