The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) has blacklisted the centre in Narsapur, Medak district, where women candidates appearing for Village Revenue Officers recruitment test were asked to remove their mangalsutra before entering the examination hall on Sunday.
Barring the stray incident, the Commission said, the examination was conducted peacefully without any major issues. Elaborate arrangements were made for 10.58 lakh candidates across the State and 78% of candidates appeared for the test.
In a release, A.Vani Prasad, Secretary of TSPSC, said when they were informed about a few women candidates being asked to remove their mangalsutra before entering the exam hall, immediate instructions were issued that such steps were against the Commission’s guidelines and no such instructions were given to the Chief Superintendents.
At the direction of the Commission, Joint Collector and the RDO of Narsapur visited the exam centre and ensured that no such inconvenience was caused to the women candidates.
Further, the TSPSC instructed District Collector K. Dharma Reddy to conduct an inquiry into the incident and send a detailed report. Accordingly, the Collector deputed the Joint Collector and RDO for an inquiry and submitted a detailed report to the Commission on Monday.
In the report, he informed that only four to five candidates wee inconvenienced at the beginning of the exam and the mistake was rectified soon after. “The Commission has taken serious note of the incident and directed the District Collector to blacklist the exam centre and take action to ensure such incidents do not recur,” the Secretary said.
What the TSPSC claimed was a stray incident evoked sharp reaction from the candidates and others too.
HRC moved
The State Human Rights Commission was moved on Monday against the TSPSC pertaining to alleged mistreatment of women aspirants who took the Village Revenue Officer examination a day before.
In their petition to the commission, M. Venkataramana Sharma and Bachumpally Santosh Kumar sought action for allegedly allowing examination centres to ask women to take off their ornaments, including mangalsutras.
The petitioners also claimed that the enforcement of the restriction left many women aspirants in tears while others who did not want to comply had to leave without appearing for the exams.
