Three days after protests over an alleged delay in the distribution of question papers in a competitive exam led to chaos at an exam centre in Patna, the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on Monday ordered a re-exam for those who took the test at the centre.
Amid the ruckus at the centre on Friday, an official on duty, additional centre superintendent Ram Iqbal Singh, suffered a heart attack and died.
Patna District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh told The Indian Express: “As additional centre superintendent Ram Iqbal Singh had to be rushed to hospital following a heart attack, students should have cooperated. Instead, they tried to block our way. The police have lodged cases against some students.”
According to an administration official, 58-year-old Ram Iqbal Singh was a teacher at Godani College in Arwal.
His son Sunny Kumar said the government should ensure that exams are held in an atmosphere where such incidents do not happen.
“My father had suffered a heart attack earlier as well. There had been so much tension and uproar at the centre, and my father could not tolerate it. He should have cited medical reasons to skip examination duty. The state government should ensure a congenial and tension-free atmosphere at examination centres so that such incidents do not take place in the future,” he said.
On Friday, more than 5 lakh students took the prelims of the Combined Competitive Examination (CCE), for filling vacancies in Group A and Group B posts, at 912 exam centres across Bihar.
At the Bapu Pariksha Parisar in Kumhrar, Patna, some examinees took out a protest, alleging a delay in the distribution of question papers, following which the Patna administration rushed law enforcement forces to the centre.
During the protest, Iqbal Singh suffered a heart attack, and a woman examinee fainted.
BPSC chairman Tanvi Manubhai S Parmar on Monday told reporters: “We have decided to cancel the preliminary examination held at Bapu Pariksha Parisar examination centre due to ruckus caused by a group of unruly aspirants as part of a conspiracy to disrupt the exam.”
Around 6,500 aspirants who were allocated the Patna centre will now have to take the prelims again. The BPSC has not yet announced the date for the re-exam.
The commission said that 30-40 aspirants had been identified and that police were in the process of identifying more involved in the ruckus, the chairman said, adding that they would be debarred from appearing in the future, including in the rescheduled CCE prelims.
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