The protest by aspirants against the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission's (UPPSC) decision to conduct the Provincial Civil Service (PCS) 2024 and Review Officer and Assistant Review Officer (RO-ARO) preliminary examinations on different dates entered its second day on Tuesday, November 12.
The protesters laid siege to the UPPSC headquarters on November 11, staging a sit-in even as a large number of police personnel tried to disperse them. While the district magistrate and the police commissioner held a meeting late on Monday, it remained inconclusive, PTI reported.
Most of the protesters spent the night under the open sky, while those who had gone home returned today morning, November 12, to join the agitation at the commission's gate.
The students were seen holding placards with slogans like "We will not retreat; we will remain united until we get justice" and "One day, one exam".
Commission's reply
On the concerns raised by some candidates about the normalisation process, a commission spokesperson said that to uphold the sanctity of its examinations and to safeguard students' future, exams are being conducted exclusively at centres where the possibility of irregularities is entirely eliminated, PTI reported.
Further, the spokesperson claimed that various irregularities surfaced at the remote exam centres in the past, creating uncertainty for the deserving students. To prevent this and to ensure a merit-based exam process, such centres have now been removed from the list, he added.
In a statement issued, the spokesperson announced that to ensure the integrity and quality of exams, only government or funded educational institutions located within a 10-km radius of a bus stand, railway station, or treasury, and with no history of suspicion, controversy, or blacklisting, are being designated as examination centres.
This arrangement has been implemented in response to the demands of the candidates for maintaining exam purity and quality. To maintain the integrity and quality of exams, it is essential to hold them in multiple shifts when there are over 5,00,000 candidates, he added.
Consequently, the PCS preliminary exam will be conducted over two days, on December 7 and 8, while the RO-ARO preliminary examination 2023 will be held in three shifts on December 22 and 23.
