Group-I prelims: Hyderabad collector clarifies on extra time given to candidates

According to Kumar, the mistake was immediately noticed and rectified by distributing correct question paper printed in English and Telugu languages.

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad district administration on Thursday clarified on extra time given to some candidates during the Group-I preliminary test, that was held at a few centres in the city on October 16 from 10 am to 1.30 pm citing wrong question paper distribution.

The district administration said that 47 candidates who had appeared for the Group-I preliminary test at St. Francis De Sales High School, Lalaguda, Secunderabad were given wrong bilingual question paper.

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“It is true that there was a mistake on the part of invigilator/hall superintendents, who instead of distributing bilingual question papers printed in Telugu and English have inadvertently distributed the question papers printed in English and other language (other than Telugu) for 47 candidates in three rooms,” District Collector, Hyderabad, Amoy Kumar, in a press release on Thursday, said.

According to Kumar, the mistake was immediately noticed and rectified by distributing correct question paper printed in English and Telugu languages.

“But the candidates agitated for a quite long time and refused to take the set of question paper with misapprehension that their answer sheets will be invalidated. However, after prolonged discussion and counselling by various authorities including the district collector, candidates finally resumed writing the exam at 1 pm. All the said candidates were in the premises of the exam centre till they completed their examination at 3.30 pm,” Kumar said.

Further for same reasons, extra time of 15 minutes and 30 minutes were given to two and five candidates respectively who appeared for the preliminary test at Stanley Engineering College, Abids, Hyderabad. Also, 15 candidates were allotted seven minutes extra time to complete the exam at Little Flower High School, Abids, Hyderabad.

“There were no malpractices noticed in any of the examination hall or exam venue mentioned above in Hyderabad district. Extra time was granted in lieu of the lost time, as per the instructions and in consultation with the TSPSC and the exam was conducted peacefully. Disciplinary action is initiated against the errant invigilators,” the District Collector added.