Bhubaneswar: Members of Ashayee Chhatra Chhatri Parishad and hundreds of Assistant Section Officer (ASO) aspirants gathered at Lower PMG Tuesday demanding cancellation of exams conducted by Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for ASO posts citing discrepancies in the examination process.
Demanding online conduct of a fresh examination, the agitators marched from Master Canteen Square to Lower PMG Square holding placards showing ‘OPSC down down’, ‘Chairman should resign’ and ‘We want CBI investigation’.
Girija Jena, convener of Ashayee Chhatra Chhatri Parishad, said, “CCTV cameras were not installed in the exam centres. If at all there were cameras, they were not functioning. Question papers were not sealed. Smart watches were seen inside the halls as well. As per norms, differently-abled students should get scribes but that did not happen. We demand the exam scrapped and conducted again online.”
He also said the OPSC chairman should resign and a CBI investigation must be conducted into the irregularities in the conduct of the exam.
Stating that OPSC is a Constitutional body, Jena wanted to know whether the OPSC is above the Constitution. “Constitution is of the people, by the people and for the people, but here Constitution is of the elite class, by the elite class and for the elite class and not for the general people,” he mentioned.
Bainatha Chanda, a differently-abled student of Khallikote College, Berhampur, said, “They neither allowed us to take our writers into the exam halls, nor did they provide us with scribes. So, we demand the exam conducted afresh and it should be online so that all kinds of discrepancies are avoided.”