The examination for the selection of Assistant Central Intelligence Officers (ACIO) in the Intelligence Bureau, held on October 15, has sparked a plethora of complaints on social media with candidates alleging that several questions were copied from self-help websites and that the questions papers were not sealed.
Complaints to Rajnath
Candidates took to Twitter and Facebook to air their grievances and lodged complaints with the National Consumer Complaint Forum. Several candidates tagged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and asked him to intervene.
Murali Koribilli, a 25-year-old electrical engineer from Visakhapatnam, said the questions were copied verbatim from affairscloud.com and careerride.com — preparatory websites for various competitive examinations.
“The officials who set the papers did not even change the numerical values while copying the questions from the websites. There were no security measures in place at the exam centre in Vijaywada,” Mr. Koribilli said.
The ACIOs are field officers who form the backbone of the IB. In August, the Bureau had invited online applications for recruitment to over 1,300 posts of ACIO Grade II. The written examination, consisting of multiple choice questions, was held in 33 cities. A senior IB official said 7.5 lakh candidates took the exam.
Incomplete papers
Suman Saurav, an applicant, posted on Twitter that the question paper was incomplete and wrong options were given. Asheesh Shekhawat, who took the examination in Mohali, said the question paper was not sealed.
“Some questions were wrong. The question paper was not sealed. Some students were carrying mobile phone in my room,” Mr. Shekhawat posted on a consumer helpline forum.
Responding to the allegations, the senior establishment official of the IB told The Hindu that candidates had to attempt 100 questions in 60 minutes, and “it [the exam] was designed to be slightly difficult on account of the large number of applicants”.
“All question papers at all centres were opened at 9.58 a.m. in the presence of, and signed by, two candidates appearing for the exam (as representatives of the candidates to encourage transparency),” he said.
Printing errors
In an announcement on its website on Wednesday, the Home Ministry said: “Due to printing errors in options to question numbers 2, 24, 25 and 78, these questions will not be evaluated and the candidates will be short-listed for the next level on the basis of their performance on remaining questions only.”
