PATNA: The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on Saturday conducted retest for a select group of examinees at different examination centres in the state capital even as Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor claimed that they would force the government to concede the demand of the students.
The BPSC, which is in the eye of a storm following allegations of question paper leak, said that the examination was held peacefully at the 22 examination centres in Patna. The retest was conducted for the 12,000 examinees who had appeared at Bapu Pariksha Parishar centre at Kumharar on December 13.
"The re-exam took place at 22 centres in Patna. Out of a total of 12,000 candidates, 8,200 examinees appeared for the retest," said Patna district magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh.
He said that tight security arrangements were made at all the examination centres in the wake of ongoing agitation and threat to disrupt the examination process. The examination at Bapu Pariksha Parishad centre was cancelled following the noisy scene created by the job aspirants.
The 70th Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination was held by the BPSC on December 13 to fill 2035 vacant posts. The aspiratnts are demanding the cancellation of the examination and fresh test for all of them. The BPSC has, however, turned down the students' request on the plea that they have not received complaints of question paper leak from any centre.
Meanwhile, Prashant Kishor, who is on fast unto death, told media persons on Saturday that they would force the state government to concede the genuine demand of the job aspirants.
"The government has put itself in the dock by holding retest for a select group of examinees," he said. He claimed that the agitation would be intensified after the retest held for a select group of examinees.
"What will happen to 4.5 lakh other examinees who have been demanding cancellation of the December 13 exam and order for a fresh one," he asked.
"The government would listen to us. The officials of the district administration came to me on Friday and requested to discontinue our agitation. I made my intentions clear to them," Kishor said in response to a media query.
The district administration has already termed Kishor's fast-unto-death 'illegal' as the place where he is staging the dharna is not designated for the purpose. Patna DM Chandrashekhar said that the administration would take further course of action shortly.
