The excise constable recruitment exam halted for three days will now resume from September 10, Additional Director General (Headquarters), Jharkhand, R.K. Mallick said.
On September 2, Chief Minister Hemant Soren had issued the instruction to halt the excise constables’ recruitment drive for three days after reports of 12 deaths since the exercise began on August 22.
On Wednesday, Mr. Soren blamed faulty COVID vaccines for the deaths.
Sharing the new dates and other changes in the drive Mr. Mallick said, “Physical test for the excise constable recruitment drive will now resume from September 10. Along with this, the drive would not be held in Palamu district, which was of the seven centres for the test. The health of the candidates will be checked before the test. Oxygen and BP measuring tools would be available at the all six centres. If any candidate feels that his health is not proper before the race, then they can get himself checked there.”
The venue of the physical test which was supposed to be held in Palamu has been changed. Palamu was one of the centres for the drive.
The maximum number of deaths has taken place in Palamu where five candidates died followed by two each in Hazaribagh and Giridih whereas one each death in Musabani, Ranchi Jaguar camp, and Sahibganj centres.
The candidates whose physical test was to be held on September 3 will now participate in the drive on September 10 and 11 in the number of 3,000 per day at every centre. Similarly, the drive which was to be held on September 4 at all the six centres will now be held on 12 and 13. Earlier, 6,000 candidates were invited every day for the physical test.
The physical test of around 42,000 candidates earlier scheduled at Palamu centres will be held on September 19 and 20 at six other locations. The new admit card for all the candidates will be issued soon by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC).
“During the recruitment process, complete medical facilities will be available at all the 6 centres of the state and no running after 8:30 a.m. under any circumstances. The Police Headquarters is very serious about the deaths that occurred during the drive and we have appealed to all the candidates that if there any health issues then they should participate in the recruitment process only after consulting their doctor,” Mr. Mallik said.
Total 1,87,704 candidates have so far participated in the drive out of which 1,17,031 have cleared the test and the test for 1,14,000 candidates is still pending.
Asked about the cause of the deaths, Mr. Mallick said that the final postmortem has not come yet, however the initial report suggests that some of them died due to heart attack.
Published - September 05, 2024 10:43 pm IST
