Initially marred by large-scale protests, the PCS preliminary examination was held on Sunday, with only around 42 per cent candidates appearing.
Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) Secretary Ashok Kumar said the examination was conducted peacefully under the vigilance of police and other agencies.
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“The PCS pre-examination was conducted peacefully on Sunday. For the fairness of the examination, a double-layer system was put in place with the police and the agency conducting separate investigations,” he told PTI.
He said all the examinations were conducted under CCTV surveillance and telecast live and candidates’ irises and other biometrics were screened to filter out proxies.
Every candidate of each center was kept under surveillance from the control room established by the commission. This monitoring was done through CCTV cameras installed in 1 thousand 331 centers across the state. As soon as any candidate was seen wandering around, we alerted the concerned center immediately. What was the special candidate doing,” Kumar said.
The only instance of cheating was found at Jawaharlal Nehru PG College in Etama, where a candidate came with an earphone, he said. The man was arrested by the police.
A total of 5,76,154 candidates applied for the exam, out of which only 2,41,212 candidates (about 42 per cent) appeared for the exam, officials said.
On November 15, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) announced that the Provincial Public Service (PCS) Preliminary Examination-2024 will be held in two shifts on December 22.
This decision was taken during the protest of the students demanding that the two exams should be held on the same day.
The protest which lasted for five days was postponed after the commission announced that the examination would be conducted on the same day.