Forest guard exam: Candidate caught in Gujarat's Mehsana with answer key

Another alleged paper leak may just dash the hopes of lakhs of unemployed youngsters yet again and question the competence of the state authorities in conducting recruitment exams in a fair manner.

On Sunday, a candidate from Mehsana was caught with an "answer key" to the forest guard exam.

He was filling in his optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet looking at this answer key, said sources in Mehsana police. The incident was reported from Sarvodaya high school near Meera Datar in Unava village.

"The examiner found a candidate covertly looking at a piece of paper while filling in his optical mark recognition sheet. When he caught hold of the candidate, the examiner found the answer key of the forest guard exam paper in his possession," said an officer with Mehsana police.

The officer said that someone might have obtained the paper earlier and given the answer key of the paper to the candidate.

However, the authorities, including state education minister Jitu Vaghani, insisted it was not a paper leak but only a copying case.

Around 4.97 lakh candidates had appeared for the exam held on Sunday for 334 posts of forest guard. Earlier scheduled in 2018, the exam was postponed due to issues pertaining to the quota for the economically weaker section (EWS).

The question paper had 100 MCQs (multiple choice questions), each carrying a weightage of two marks. The police said that they had not received any official complaint in the case and were waiting for an approval to initiate a probe.

If the paper leak allegations are found to be true, this would be the fourth in a series of recruitment exam paper leaks in eight months.

In 2021, three question papers of government recruitment exams were leaked and the GSSSB (Gujarat subordinate service selection board) chairman Asit Vora had to tender his resignation.