The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) is all set to take the third phase of teachers’ recruitment test (TRE), which was cancelled in March after question leak ahead of the examination was established by the Economic Offence Unit (EOU), from July 19-22 across the state.
A senior BPSC official said that elaborate arrangement, including changes in the way question papers are prepared, have been made to prevent any recurrence of question leak or impersonation, which had caused major embarrassment to the state government just ahead of the Lok Sabha election due to relentless Opposition attack on alleged corruption.
The examination will be held in one sitting on three days – July 19-21 – and two sittings on July 22 across over 400 centres in 27 districts. BPSC chairman Parmar Ravi Manubhai, who was appointed in March after the TRE-3 fiasco, on Monday held meeting with all the concerned district magistrates to review preparations for free and fair examination on such a large scale and in the backdrop of previous embarrassment.
Though the BPSC had initially refused to cancel TRE-3 held on March 15 for want of “credible evidence”, it was left with no choice after the EOU registered the FIR in this connection on the basis of preliminary investigation, which established question leak before the exam date, and cancelled the paper.
The re-examination now will be a big test for the BPSC. There are 87774 vacancies of teachers in third phase and over four-lakh candidates are expected to take it. Around 3.75-lakh candidates had taken cancelled TRE-3 on March 15 also.
With the Patna High Court setting aside the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Amendment Act, 2023 and the Bihar Reservation (in Admission to Educational Institutions) Amendment Act, 2023 as ultra vires the Constitution and violative of the equality clause under Articles 14, 15 and 16, the Bihar government has already moved the Supreme Court.
“The result will be announced on the basis of the government guidelines with regard to reservation. We will have to wait for that,” said the official.
Though EOU had arrested 266 persons in connection with the TRE-3 fiasco, no big head rolled in the BPSC and the alleged kingpin Sanjiv Mukhiya remained out of clutch of the probe agency. How could he get access to original questions in pen drive and who provided it also could not be established.
A senior official of the EOU said that they never got the desired cooperation from the BPSC despite serving notice and that they would submit the final report soon.
“The name of Sanjiv Mukhiya had emerged as the kingpin of TRE-3 and his name again surfaced as the key man behind NEET-3 question paper leak,” said ADG (EOU) NH Khan.
Nalanda resident Mukhiya is still at large despite CBI searching for him in connection with NEET paper leak and several arrests already made by the investigating agency to ascertain the magnitude of the case and how the questions could reach him.
