Amidst ongoing protests by the KAS aspirants seeking a CBI probe into the alleged mass irregularities in the Mains results, chairman Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC), Latief-u-Zaman Deva on Monday claimed the result was completely “error free.”
“We’re using international standard of software and applying the most transparent techniques for the evaluation of answer scripts. So, I want to ensure it to the protesting youngsters that our system of evaluation is completely error-free and there is no question of discrepancies in the declaration of results,” Deva said while addressing media persons here.
Hundreds of aggrieved candidates from across the State are protesting against the commission since the KAS (Mains) results were announced on December 4. The aggrieved candidates allege that the results were full of errors and the “undeserving candidates” have been selected for the interview.
They blame the “digital system” of evaluation for the alleged error in the results and seek a CBI probe to re-verify the results.
The PSC chairman said, “In the process of digital system of evaluation of answer scripts, scanned copies go to the evaluation centres, also called the hub. The evaluators after going through the answer scripts, award the marks. These are then recorded with the answer script in the computer. This goes back to the central record room.”
He added: “Now, there are software programmes which have been adopted by the higher agency for verifying the authenticity of the record to check whether there was any discrepancy. All the programmes have been applied and the software of international standards used for the evaluation.”
“Even after technological advancements, in terms of our own regulation, we also adopted manual checks and in this system also, we found no mistakes,” he said.
The chairman J&KPSC said: “Some candidates had later approached the commission through representations and we again conducted checking and found no variation in the results. So, I want to tell the youngsters that our system was completely error-free.”
Deva said that J&KPSC is not the only institution that is using the digital system of evaluation.
“Commissions of Gujarat, Rajasthan and other premier institutions of the country also conduct examination through digital mode and use same technology. Over the years, various software programmes have been developed to ensure error-free examination. We’re also using the same software programmes. Question of discrepancies doesn’t arise then,” he said.
Deva said the commission switched over to the digital mode of evaluation from the manual mode to avoid the wastage of time in the declaration of the result and ensure zero discrepancy in the result.
The consultancy for the digital evaluation, he said, was also selected after following the set procedure and taking into account all the required formalities.
Making it clear that although the allegations regarding discrepancies in Combined Competitive (Mains) Examination-2016 are completely unwarranted, Deva said it will, still, provide an opportunity to the aggrieved candidates to project their concerns by making a formal representation to the Commission.
He asked the candidates to mail a formal representation to the Commission within 3 days mentioning their Roll Number and Name so that re-verification vis-a vis the evaluated scripts is done, as a matter of abundant caution.
Regarding the introduction of on-screen method of evaluation, Deva clarified that it is in no way change of pattern as it only supplements and complements technologically the evaluation process and technique
Highlighting the difference between the manual and on-screen method, JKPSC Chairman said the only difference between the two is that in the manual mode of evaluation, the manual copies of the scripts are sent to the evaluators for assessment of the performance of the candidates wherein marks are awarded and recorded manually, while in onscreen evaluation of the answer scripts, the answer booklets are uploaded to the data center, wherefrom they are retrieved by the officials at local data center for display in the readable platform (computer) which is accessed by the evaluators through use of unique log-in IDs.
Deva dispelled the notion of some aggrieved candidates that in onscreen method of evaluation instead of evaluators assessing the performance based on the answers written by the candidates, computer does the evaluation as being done in evaluating OMR sheets of preliminary examination. “In onscreen method also, the evaluation is done by the designated evaluators, however, without using paper or pen,” he said.
“We are confident that the result is error-free as it has gone through several checks and cross-checks inherent in the system,” he told the reporters.