Prayagraj (UP): The PCS prelims, hit by large-scale protests at the beginning, were concluded on Sunday, with only about 42 per cent of the candidates appearing.

Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) Secretary Ashok Kumar said the exams were conducted peacefully under the watch of police and other agencies.

“The PCS Pre exam was completed peacefully on Sunday. For the fairness of the exam, a double-layer system was put in place in which the police and the agency were conducting separate investigations,” he told PTI.

He said all exams were conducted under the watch of CCTV and live streamed and candidates’ iris and other biometrics were screened to filter out proxies.

“Every candidate of every centre was monitored from the control room set up in the commission. This monitoring was done through CCTV cameras installed in 1,331 centres across the state. As soon as any candidate was seen roaming around, we immediately alerted the concerned centre about what the particular candidate was doing,” Kumar said.

The sole incident of cheating was found in Etah at Jawaharlal Nehru PG College, where a candidate came with earphones, he said. The person was booked by police.

A total of 5,76,154 candidates had applied for the examination, out of which only 2,41,212 candidates (about 42 per cent) appeared in the exam, officials said.

On November 15, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) announced that the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) Preliminary Exam-2024 will be held on December 22 in two shifts.

The decision was met with protests by students, who demanded that the two exams be held on a single day.

The protests continued for five days and were called off when the commission announced it would conduct the exams in a single day. 

With PTI Inputs