New Delhi: Government job aspirants in Telangana are up in arms after police confirmed that the question paper of a recruitment exam held by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) on March 5 was leaked.
According to Telugu news portals, the paper leak and subsequent cancellation of the exam have resulted in large-scale protests by job aspirants in Hyderabad. Police have now imposed Section 144 in and around the TSPSC office in the city. Osmania University campus has also erupted in protests, and several protestors have been detained.
The March 5 exam by TSPSC was held to fill 833 vacancies of assistant engineer, municipal assistant engineer, technical officer, and junior technical officer in various engineering departments. A total of 55,000 candidates had written the exam.
The Hyderabad Police has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the paper leak, and so far arrested nine persons, including two TSPSC staffers. Meanwhile, Telangana governor, Tamilisai Soundararajan, has also sought a report from the public service commission.
The paper leak has also cast its shadow on other upcoming exams to be held by the public service commission. A recruitment exam for town planning building overseer, scheduled for March 12, was cancelled. Similarly, other exams on March 15 and 16 were also called off.
With the latest controversy, aspirants are now raising doubts over previous exams conducted by the commission, especially the Group-I prelims exam held in October 2022. There are allegations that the main accused in the case, Praveen Kumar, scored 103 marks out of 150 marks in the October 2022 exam, which is said to be among the top-scoring marks in the said exam.
There are doubts about whether the Group-I prelims exam paper was also leaked and whether it would also be cancelled. Nearly 2.85 lakh candidates appeared for the exam, and about 25,00o candidates qualified for the Mains exam slated to be held in June 2023.
According to Indian Express, TSPSC chairman, B. Janardhan Reddy, declined to comment when asked if other exams were also compromised. He said the commission is awaiting an audit report from the cyber security wing and the forensic sciences laboratory. However, he said the Group-I Mains exam would be held as per schedule on June 5 this year.
To ensure transparency, he said all question papers for the upcoming exams would be prepared again.
Meanwhile, aspirants have been demanding that Reddy be suspended from his position and government order a probe by a sitting high court judge.
Recruitment to government posts in Telangana and erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh has, for long, been marked by controversies and inordinate delays. The job aspirants in Telangana have been critical of the K. Chandrashekar Rao government for nearly stalling all recruitment to government posts for eight years. It was only in March last year, the chief minister announced that his government would fill 80,000 posts. The state is scheduled to go to polls in December this year.