No discrepancies in ASO recruitment: OPSC

BHUBANESWAR: With a section of assistant section officer (ASO) aspirants alleging discrepancies in the recruitment process, the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) on Thursday termed the allegations ‘false’ and ‘baseless.’

“The allegations levelled by certain candidates in the mainstream and social media that candidates who were absent have been selected are baseless and false,” stated the Commission while maintaining that OPSC follows a fair and transparent policy in the selection of candidates in all examinations and the same was followed in letter and spirit during ASO recruitment.

Merit is the only criterion for selection and the Commission strongly condemns any attempt to malign its fairness and merit-based selection criteria, the statement issued by the OPSC read.The Commission clarified that the written text for the ASO Examination was conducted in three sittings on August 27 in which a total 1,48,888 candidates appeared against 796 advertised vacancies.

The list of candidates who qualified in the written examination was notified in the website of the Commission on November 7. A total of 1104 candidates qualified in the written examination which was approximately 1.5 times of the advertised vacancy.  The Commission, while preparing the provisional list of candidates for document verification and skill test, followed the provision stipulated in the advertisement that states ‘the Commission shall be competent to fix up the qualifying marks in any or all the subjects of the examination.”

The answer keys were validated by an expert committee with due regard to the objections and suggestions given by the candidates immediately after the examination on the basis of which the final evaluation was made. The wrong and ambigious answers pro-rated as per the policy of the Commission, OPSC officials said. Several ASO aspirants staged a demonstration in front of the OPSC office on Thursday alleging discrepancies after which the Commission issued a clarification.