Patna: Ahead of Bihar Public Service Commission‘s (BPSC) Integrated 70th Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination to be held on December 13, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the state police on Monday issued an advisory for the candidates and their parents, advising them to be aware of social media rumours.
Apprehending that anti-social elements can break the integrity of the examination through rumours on social media platforms, the unit has also asked the candidates and their parents to inform them or police immediately about any such misinformation.
Deputy inspector general (DIG) of EOU, Manavjit Singh Dhillon, has urged the candidates to avoid rumours. “If any question paper or answer sheet goes viral, report it immediately to the cyber police station. People can also provide information to the Patna Economic Offences Unit’s social media patrolling and monitoring unit via WhatsApp message or email. Immediate action will be taken in this matter,” said Dhillon.
Under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024/Bihar Public Examination Act 2024, imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of Rs 1 crore can be imposed for malpractices in exams.
About 4.8 lakh candidates are expected to appear for the examination for recruitment of Group A and B employees in a single shift from 12 to 2pm. The examination will be held across 925 centres in Bihar, including more than 60 in Patna district. The BPSC had initially advertised 1,957 vacancies in its notification, later revising it to 2,035.
Admit cards were issued on the commission’s site on December 6.
Information about the exam centres will be provided to the candidates from December 10. Candidates will be allowed entry to the centres an hour before the exam. Multiple levels of checks will be conducted before allowing entrance to the exam centre, followed by biometric attendance and eye pupil verification.
Also, jammers will be installed at all the centres. Besides, different colours will be used for questions papers in the exam.
Earlier, thousands of candidates took to the streets in Patna on December 6, protesting against “normalisation” in the exam. Police had to resort to baton-charge. However, the BPSC clarified that the exam will be taken on the same old pattern without any normalisation in the score.
The essence of normalisation is that when the score of candidates in an exam is very high, the commission plans to conduct the exam in two or more shifts. There are separate sets of question papers in every exam. If the candidates score fewer marks and solve fewer questions in one session of the exam, while candidates in another session score higher and attempt more questions, the first session’s scores will be increased by considering the second session easier.