Hundreds of candidates who had to appear in the examination for the posts of drivers for the Punjab and Haryana High Court Sunday staged a protest on Kharar-Ludhiana highway after they were not allowed to sit in the examination hall as they did not take second Covid-19 dose and did not have their negative RT-PCR reports for the past 72 hours. The exam was to start at 10 am at Chandigarh University, Gharuan, but when the candidates were not allowed to sit, they blocked the traffic on the highway. The traffic was diverted onto other routes. Parvinder Singh, one of the candidates, who had come from Ferozepur, told The Indian Express that there were 800 to 1,000 candidates who were denied entry for appearing in the examination. He added that the candidates did not have any prior information about the condition of vaccine doses or negative Covid-19 reports. “The conditions like what to do or not to do were mentioned on our admit cards, but there was no mention of the vaccine doses or negative reports. It was a betrayal with hundreds of candidates who had to apprear for the exam,” Parvinder said. Asked whether they were not informed earlier about the condition, Parvinder said that he received an e-mail on Saturday but it was not possible for him to get his negative RT-PCR report of 72 hours while his second dose of Covid-19 vaccination was due in November. Jagtar Singh, a resident of Mullanpur Graibdas, who was also a candidate, said that a police officer at the spot had also misbehaved with the candidates and hundreds of candidates were kept out of the examination hall. “The posts were advertised in 2019. We waited for two years just to appear for the exam. Many candidates had received both doses of vaccine but they were asked to show 72-hour-old RT-PCR negative report,” Jagatar said.
