Chennai: Expressing serious concern over the recently released results of exams to recruit more than 2,700 assistant professors for the government colleges, PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss on Saturday alleged that the evaluation process appears to be a "planned malpractice" and urged the government to probe the issue.

"It is completely baffling to see that several candidates who scored as high as 111 marks (74%) in their elective subject (Paper-I objective type) have been awarded zero marks in the Paper-II essay," Anbumani claimed.

"Giving zero to high scorers and 98% to low scorers does not look like a natural outcome. It strongly appears to be a deliberate attempt to eliminate meritorious candidates and favour low-scoring individuals. This does not look like an unintentional oversight; it seems to be a well-planned malpractice," the PMK leader alleged.

He criticised the Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) for creating panic and confusion among thousands of doctoral candidates who took the exam, he said in a statement. The results of the exam were released a few days ago.

PMK leader raised questions over the integrity of the competitive examinations conducted to fill 2,708 assistant professor vacancies across 48 departments in government Arts and Science colleges in Tamil Nadu.

Urging the Tamil Nadu government to immediately order an official probe to ascertain whether these discrepancies are a result of administrative carelessness or systemic corruption, he insisted that all further recruitment proceedings must be stayed until the investigation is concluded to safeguard the future of deserving candidates.

This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.