RANCHI: Giving a new turn to the ongoing students' protest in Jharkhand, successful candidates of the 14th JPSC Combined Civil Services Preliminary Examination have opened a fresh front against Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s announcement to cancel the exam over allegations of irregularities.
According to them, those found responsible for any wrongdoing should face action, but scrapping the entire examination would be unfair to candidates who appeared honestly and cleared it through their hard work.
They maintained that they are not opposed to an inquiry and are fully cooperating with the CID investigation. The agency had sought carbon copies of the OMR sheets from successful candidates, with around 1,800 candidates having already submitted them.
Questioning the rationale behind cancelling the entire exam, the candidates said sufficient documents and records are available to establish whether irregularities actually occurred.
According to Kunal, who has cleared the PT exam, he is not opposed to reforms and wants the JPSC examination system to improve and the entire process to become transparent; however, cancelling the entire exam in the name of reform is unjust to those who have worked hard for it.
“Though a protest arose demanding improvements to the examination system—a demand I support—the government's proposal to cancel the exam has caused anxiety among the successful candidates,” said Kunal.
He remarked that cancelling the exam should not be the ultimate solution; if the entire process were to restart and a technical or administrative issue arose again in the future, would the exam be cancelled every time?
Kunal appealed to the government to identify the guilty parties and allow innocent candidates the opportunity to proceed.
Another successful candidate, Ankita Raj from Chaibasa, said that neither she nor other successful candidates had resorted to unfair means, asserting that they had secured their results through hard work and preparation.
It is unfair to cast suspicion on all successful candidates merely because questions had been raised over the examination process, she said.
“Cancelling the exam would mean much more than simply appearing for it again, as candidates had invested months and years in preparation, along with significant financial resources, while also dealing with family pressures and career planning.
For many, age limits for government jobs and family circumstances make starting the preparation afresh particularly difficult,” said Ankita. If the investigation establishes irregularities involving any candidate or at any level of the examination process, those responsible should face action, she added.
However, she urged that the future of candidates who appeared for the examination fairly should not be jeopardised.
Notably, the JPSC issued the notification for the 14th Combined Civil Services Examination in January.
The preliminary examination was held on April 19, and the results were declared on July 2, with a total of 2,204 candidates declared successful.
Subsequently, allegations of irregularities in the examination process triggered protests, following which the state government announced its decision to cancel the examination.
