BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) has landed in a soup over ‘goof up’ in evaluation of answer script of a candidate of Odisha Civil Services examinations, 2015.Acting on the direction from Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), the General Administration (GA) department has asked OPSC to clarify the reasons behind changing the marks of the candidate, Rajat Kumar Mishra, in 2016.
Rajat, who had written the Odisha Civil Services Examinations-2015 in February 2016, had originally secured 117 out of 200 in Essay paper. However, when he sought his answer-script from the Commission, he was shocked to find the marks revised to 50.
“The marks on my papers had been tampered. Against the original score of 117, I was given 50 at the tabulation stage,” Rajat said.He alleged that when he drew attention of OPSC officials towards this irregularity, their reply was casual. “The present Chairman of the Commission, who termed the incident as unfortunate, said nothing can be done now,” he said.
He said though he could not have made it to the merit list even after securing 117, he became a victim of a larger conspiracy and action should taken against those involved in it. He alleged that his score in interview round was also reduced to keep him out of the race.
Had it not been done intentionally, they (OPSC officials) wouldn’t have taken more than a year to provide me with the photo copy of the answer sheet, said Rajat from Kothar in Bhadrak. “They might have found the inconsistency in marks on the answer paper and tabulation stage and adjusted the marks accordingly before issuing it to me,” he said.
Acting on the complaint of Rajat, the GA department had asked OPSC to clarify the time limit of providing photocopy of answer-sheet to students and the reason behind delay.The department, which had sought clarification from OPSC by March 23 this year, issued reminder last week as it failed to get any reply from the apex recruitment body of the State.
Secretary, OPSC, Satyabrata Ray said they have issued a clarification to GA department on March 28 which the department may not have received. Ray further claimed that there was no irregularity in marking.“The score on the essay paper was revised by the Chief Examiner who is authorised to make corrections,” he said.