BHUBANESWAR : HUNDREDS of candidates who had appeared for the recruitment test for various Group-C posts on Tuesday staged demonstrations outside the Odisha Sub-Ordinate Staff Selection Commission (OSSSC) office here alleging large-scale irregularities in the examination.
Earlier this year, the OSSSC had conducted the combined recruitment examination (CRE)-2023 for 2,712 posts of foresters, forest guards and livestock inspectors. Around 2.5 lakh students had appeared the test which took place from April 24 to May 7. The total marks were 150.
The examinees alleged that the results were announced last month but instead of scores, the commission released percentiles of candidates. “Prior to that, many of us had pointed out that there were several mistakes in the question papers. When we raised objections, OSSSC released a revised answer key. Accordingly, revised results and merit list were announced recently. Surprisingly, many undeserving candidates who could not even score 10 marks in the examination, have secured top marks in the revised results,” said a candidate Sangram Swain.
He said the OSSSC did not release the actual score card but only gave out the percentiles. Showing a copy of the results, Sangram said he scored 115 out of 150 marks but his name does not figure in the merit list while another candidate who scored 80 out of 150, has made it to the list.
Just before the CRE, the OSSSC had conducted panchayat executive officer (PEO) examination and a majority of candidates who appeared for combined examination had written the PEO test too. While the basic qualification for forester and livestock inspector was Plus II science, that of forest guard was Class 10. Similarly, the basic qualification for PEO was Plus II. The PEO examination was held for 180 marks.
The agitating candidates alleged that there is large-scale discrepancy in the marks in both the forester/livestock inspector and PEO examinations. Many candidates who were disqualified in the PEO test scored the highest percentile in CRE.
Citing several examples, they said a candidate from Gajapati made nine wrong attempts in the forester/livestock inspector examination as per his result sheet but got 100 percentile. The same candidate had got -14.5 marks out of 180 in the PEO exam. Similarly, a candidate from Keonjhar made 11 wrong attempts at the forester/livestock inspector test but got 99.9 percentile. He, however, scored -5.5 marks in PEO examination.
The agitators demanded cancellation of the examinations and holding them afresh. Higher authorities of the commission were not available for comments.