More than 50% of the candidates did not turn up for the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission’s Group I written examination in the central districts on Sunday.
Of the 22,460 candidates who had applied for the examinations in the eight districts of Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Karur, Pudukottai, Perambalur, and Ariyalur, only 9,405 appeared for the examinations.
As many as 13,055 candidates abstained from the examinations, because of which many of the exam halls looked nearly empty.
The examinations were held in 61 centres in the region.
The district administrations had made arrangements for the operation of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation special buses to and from the examination centres in all the districts.
In Tiruchi district, 3,030 candidates appeared in 16 centres out of 7,246 who got the hall tickets.
S. Paneerselvam, member, TNPSC, went around various examination centres.
Of the 4,526 candidates who had applied for the examinations in Thanjavur district, only 1,828 turned up at the 15 centres.
Three flying squads and three monitoring teams visited various centres and monitored the examinations.
In Pudukottai district, of the 2,352 candidates who got hall tickets, 1,305 did not turn up at the five centres.
Collector C. Manoharan visited a few centres.
Of the 1,921 candidates who had applied in Karur district, 1,069 did not turn up at six centres.
In Tiruvarur district, only 726 candidates appeared for the test, with 959 remaining absent in three centres.
M. Mathivanan, Collector, inspected the progress of the exam in these centres.
In Nagapattinam district, of the 1,504 men and women who aspired for the test, only 565 turned up at five centres. T. Munusamy, Collector, inspected the centres at Chinmaya Vidyalaya and Natarajan Damayanthi HSS.
In Perambalur district, 1,003 candidates were absent out of 1,709 who had applied at six centres and in Ariyalur, 766 candidates were absent out of 1,417 who had applied at five centres.
