Chaos at health department recruitment exam in Pune after question papers arrive late

Various health department examination centres in Pune had to face problems right from getting the examination papers late, to no seating arrangements, and even allegations of a wrong question paper, the issues were many

PUNE For Santosh Patil, it was a day of frustration and anger, as he along with hundreds of other aspirants faced a delay at their state health department recruitment examination at the Abeda Inamdar College.

Hundreds of other aspirants faced a delay at their state health department recruitment examination at the Abeda Inamdar College in Pune. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

The exam was delayed by 20 minutes and students had to wait outside the examination centre. “I had come to the centre at 9am and the examination was scheduled to start by 10am, but there was no proper management at the centre. The exam paper did not arrive in time. Many of us did not even have hall tickets and there was no proper seating arrangement,” said Patil.

Like Patil, aspirants at various other examination centres in Pune had to face similar problems. Right from getting the examination papers late, to no seating arrangements, and even allegations of a wrong question paper, the issues were many.

Another student Kishori Shambhe said, “The examination was a classic example of mismanagment and lack of coordination. Already this exam was postponed twice and when it was actually happening we had to face many difficulties. There was lack of coordination between the officials and students and there was no communication. Even seating arrangements were improper.”

The government outsourced the conducting of this exam to a firm, Nyasa Communication Private Limited (NCPL). Previously the government had to cancel the scheduled exam last month due to a lack of preparation.

The exam is held to fill 6,200 vacant posts in the state health department. The examination is scheduled for group ‘C’ posts and is to be conducted in two parts, on October 24 and 31.

Students who have applied for multiple posts as per their eligibility, complained of being allotted different centres on the same day.

BJP city president Jagdish Mulik along with other party workers protested outside the Abeda Inamdar College against this alleged mismanagement by the state government.

“State government is responsible for this mismanagement and playing with the careers of thousands of aspirants who have applied for the jobs. It is necessary to take strict action against the company who conducted today’s exams,” said Mulik.

Talking about the overall mismanagement in conducting the exams, state health minister Rajesh Tope said, “The recruitment exams held across the state was well planned, still there was some mismanagement where students got the question papers late. We instructed the centres to give additional time to those students and action will be taken those responsible for it. We will take care and try to resolve issues faced today for the October 31 examination.”