By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, July 9: All’s not well in the State Forest Department. The written test for junior assistants (divisiol level) and junior assistants (directorate level) conducted by the department on Sunday was a total chaos at the College of Veteriry Science at Khapara in the city.
The written test was to start at 11 am but the candidates were asked to report at 7.30 am for biometric registration. The candidates had to stand in queue since morning for the registration. They had a harrowing time. Even after registration, the candidates were not allowed to go out. When the test started it came to light that the centre did not have adequate sitting plan for the number of candidates who were to face the examition from there. The invigilators of the test let the candidates sit four/five together so as to accommodate them. The problems did not end there. While distributing the question paper, it came to light that the number of question papers was not in accordance with the number of candidates. This let the situation escalate. A section of candidates raised the demand for the cancellation of the written test.
According to sources, an institution from South India has been entrusted to conduct the examition. A section of candidates rued the fact and said as to why an institution from South India was given the contract for holding the test when the State has no dearth of such institutions. The authority had to cancel the written test of the centre. The test will be rescheduled later. This announcement was also opposed by a section of candidates as to how two different tests for a post would be the right yardstick.
Hearing a writ petition filed in the Gauhati High Court on the State Forest Department’s advertisement for the post, the high court allowed the conduct of the examition, but barred the department from announcing the results without prior permission from the court. The writ was filed by Rinkumoni Das and six others.
The entire episode reflects inept handing of the examition by the department or the institution entrusted by the department to conduct the test. The department drew flak for what happened on Sunday.
Reacting to the incident, Protibondhi Suraksha Sanstha secretary Nripen Malakar said: “The advertisement has 20 per cent reservation for casual workers and ten per cent for tiol sportspersons, but the four per cent reservation for differently-abled candidates hasn’t been mentioned. If there are any notification regarding reservations for casual workers and sportspersons, let the department make that public. Though candidates applying for both the posts were charged fees separately, in the examition hall today the same candidates applying for both the posts have to sit on the same OMR sheets. They also had to apply separately, and as such they got separate call letters. The candidates applying for both the posts had to write two roll numbers on the same answer sheets. The duration of the test was three hours in the advertisement but it was held in two hours today. We demand fresh advertisement for the posts.”