1,500 AP students miss exam due to BSNL error

Hundreds of candidates from the state missed the BSNL’s junior accounts officers recruitment exam held on Sunday due to a “communication gap.” Nearly 6,000 students from the state had applied for the exam and as per the official estimates about 1,500 students missed the exam.

BSNL employees blamed the volatile political situation, for their failure to alert the students regarding the change in the exam centres from Hyderabad to Chennai, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar last week. They also failed to send the revised hall tickets to candidates. This newspaper had reported the sudden change in exam centres from Hyderabad in these columns on March 7. Unaware of this, hundreds of candidates came to exam centres on Sunday to Shadan College, Khairatabad and St Ann’s College, Secunderabad, to find that there were no centres there. The shocked students protested earlier demanding the officials to conduct the exam again. However, BSNL officials said they had sent the revised hall tickets and have also kept the details of change of exam centres on its website last week.

On Sunday, traffic came to standstill on the busy Khairatabad Road when hundreds of candidates who missed the exam sat on a dharna in front of Shadan College. Angry protesters later went on a rally to the Telephone Bhavan in Saifabad and demonstrated demanding the cancellation of exam held on Sunday and conduct it again later.

“I came from Karimnagar for the exam. I was allotted a centre in Shadan College. When I came here to write the exam, the College was locked as it was Sunday. We were told by college security personnel that there was no exam and that it was shifted from there,” said Mr K. Mallikarjun Rao, a candidate.

“If they have shifted the centres, they should have extensively publicised it in the media. When we asked the officials, they told us that the information on shifting of centres was posted on the website on February 26. Most of the candidates hail from semi-urban and rural areas and it is not possible to view the website at such a short notice,” said Ms Ch. Sravani, another candidate.

However, BSNL officials in Hyderabad refused to take the blame saying that it was a national-level exam conducted by their head office in New Delhi. “If there is any disruption at any centre, the entire exam process will be affected,” the official said.