Following allegations of possible malpractice at a couple of exam centres in Tamil Nadu, the state’s Public Service Commission (TNPSC) has announced that an official inquiry will be conducted.
According to a report in Puthiya Thalaimurai, the TNPSC released a statement on Monday, announcing that it will first verify all the answer sheets of the 497 candidates who have been called for certificate verification process after qualifying for the Group 4 exams of the Commission. Stating that appropriate action will be initiated if the allegations are proven true, the TNPSC also requested the candidates to not lose hope while the inquiry is on.
Recently, the TNPSC released a rank list of those who had cleared Group 4 exam conducted by the Commission on September 1, 2019 for jobs in Tamil Nadu government. In the rank list, it was noticed that many candidates among the top 100 ranks had given their tests in two centres in Ramanathapuram district -- Rameswaram and Keelakarai. These candidates allegedly belonged to different districts across Tamil Nadu but still had chosen to give TNPSC exam from one of the two centres in Ramanathapuram district.
Stating that Ramanathapuram district had eight circles with 128 exam centres, where over 32,000 candidates gave their exams, TNPSC said that 497 candidates have been called for the certificate verification process. The Commission has also promised legal action on those found guilty of unethical examination practices.
The TNPSC exam was held in over 5,500 centres, where over 16 lakh candidates gave the exam on September 1, 2019. The results of the exam were published in November 2019 and a rank list based was released recently by the Commission.
These allegations on an entrance examination come shortly after around half a dozen MBBS students and their parents were arrested by the Tamil Nadu police for being involved in an impersonation scam in NEET 2019. The police initiated action against the accused after the Dean of Theni Medical College filed an official complaint, suspecting foul play in the documents submitted by first-year MBBS students in the college.