Vijayapura, 2 August

Tensions prevailed in the Tikota town of Vijayapura district on Sunday as candidates for the Police Constable Recruitment Examination alleged that the question paper numbers did not match the OMR sheet numbers.

A total of 61 examination centres had been set up across the district, with 24,434 candidates registered for the examination. At the Sharadamba PU College examination centre in Tikota, candidates claimed that the even though question papers were scheduled to be distributed at 10.30am, but were handed out only at 11.00am, resulting in a delay of approximately 30 minutes.

Compounded with the OMR-mismatch, this created confusion and suspicion among the candidates, prompting some of them to boycott the examination and walk out. Hundreds of candidates gathered outside the main gate of the examination centre, raising slogans against the government and the examination staff. They alleged that the delay reduced the time available to answer the questions and raised concerns about the transparency of the examination process.

Candidates even pushed the gate down, prompting police to intervene and disperse the crowd to restore order.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Anand K and Superintendent of Police Lakshman Nimbargi stated that the entire examination process was under webcasting surveillance and clarified that the question paper number and the OMR sheet number are not required to match.

Anand added that a detailed report on the incident would be submitted to the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).

However, some candidates had already left the examination hall and only 117 candidates completed the examination at the Sharadamba PUC.

Similar issues were reported in Haveri, but Salar could not verify the allegations.