Several aspirants miss the Group-II bus by a whisker

Hyderabad: Under strict security measures, the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TGPSC) Group II services recruitment examination begins across the State on Sunday. In an agonising turn of events, many candidates were denied entry into several centres as they arrived late by a minute.

The TGPSC has already informed candidates that gates will be closed 30 minutes prior to the exam’s commencement. Despite various challenges, such as traffic issues and centres being located far apart, this rule was enforced at many centres.

In districts like Vikarabad, Mancherial, and Karimnagar, as well as in the city at locations like Nizam College and Government Women’s Degree College in Begumpet, few students were turned away from exam centres for arriving just a minute late.

However, many arrived at centres after the gates were closed. Despite numerous appeals to the centres’ officials, several candidates were denied entry to appear for the exam, for which they worked hard for several years.

According to TGPSC officials, the commission has conducted the Group-II service exams successfully at 1,368 centres in 33 districts in the State. In one of the centres (code - 4,419), a candidate was found suspicious, and the chief superintendent of the exam centre immediately checked him, and in the undergarment of the candidate, a foldable mobile phone was detected.

The candidate was immediately stopped from writing the exam and was handed over to the police for further inquiry. As per the terms and conditions, a Malpractice Case Act 25/97 action is being initiated against the candidate following due procedure.

A few instances came to the forefront in Vikarabad when a pregnant woman named Veena, along with two others, was denied entry to the TGPSC Group-2 exam after arriving a minute late. A similar incident occurred at the Begumpet centre, where a candidate claimed she was late by just five minutes and was not allowed to enter. A comparable situation was also reported at Nizam College, where a differently-abled candidate was denied entry for being two minutes late.

Sridevi, a Group II aspirant, at one of the centres at Begumpet, said, “Due to huge traffic congestion, I was late by two minutes to my centre; despite several appeals, I was not allowed to write my exam. My complete hard work went to vain.”

Meanwhile, candidates who appeared for the exam said that the difficulty level of the paper was brought down in paper II (history, polity, and society), but paper I (general studies and general abilities) seemed to be a bit difficult, and there was a slight difficulty in the Telugu language paper.

Srinivas, a Group II aspirant whose centre was in University PG College, OU, Secunderabad, said, “"The question paper in Telugu seemed quite easy overall. The only challenge we encountered was with a few words translated from English, which were a bit difficult to understand. However, both Paper 1 and Paper 2 were generally easy.”