Software glitch mars police service exam for 2nd time

Bhubaneswar: Paper-I of the Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE)-2018 was postponed on Saturday, for the second time, due to technical glitch resulting in candidates expressing concern over the handling of the exam by the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB).
The CPSE was held between July 2 and 10, but it was marred by technical glitches. Though some of the subjects could be conducted, the Odia exam was hit by software glitch, where the paper could not be downloaded properly. Later, the OPRB announced that re-examination of the Odia paper would be held on August 20 (Saturday). But once again the exam could not be held owing to technical fault.
OPRB chairman Sudhanshu Sarangi said the re-examination was postponed due to software issues. “The question paper could not be downloaded properly. Further, it is assured that no candidate will be denied the opportunity to take the examination. Inconvenience is regretted,” Sarangi said.
An examinee requesting anonymity said officials of the OPRB and the agency conducting the exam should hang their heads in shame for their failure that the exam could not be conducted for the second time. “They should know that the Odisha government has conducted several exams, but this type of issue had never surfaced,” the aspirant said.
Another candidate said he had to travel around 300km in the middle of flood and heavy rain to appear for the exam in Cuttack, only to see it getting postponed. “Will the OPRB or the agency conducting the exam pay travel allowances to candidates? I have spent more than Rs 1000 on bus journeys and food. We are poor people, we cannot wait for five years to appear for a written examination, which may not happen also,” the examinee said.
OPRB chairman said the responsibility to conduct the test was handed to a central government agency through tendering process. “We have issued a show cause notice to the agency for this unintentional technical glitch. Question papers that were downloaded could not be read clearly because of software issues. When the engineers could not resolve it, we decided to postpone the examination,” Sarangi said.
“We are trying to hold this test within the next 15 days,” he said, adding, “Paper-II exams conducted in July had no problem,” he added.