UPSC aspirants demand cut-off list of prelims examination

Sagar Deore,24,one of the aspirants said,“After the exam,I had checked my answers in the answer guide and according to it,I should have easily cleared the exams. Had UPSC come out with its own answer key we could have checked our answers but now there’s no way to cross check.”

While aspirants from other cities,including Mumbai,New Delhi,have similar complaints,this is not the first time that this has happened. For last many years,students have been complaining of discrepancies in the prelim results. But the number of complaints this year is alarmingly high.

For last few years there has been an increasing demand from students that UPSC declare the cut-off marks and the answer key as many public service commissions in the country do.

MPSC not only declares the cut-off and answer key within few days of the examination,but it also provides a photocopy of the answer sheet.

This has made the whole process transparent,said Sachin Kadam,who teaches Public Administration at Prithvi Coaching Classes.

In 2006,Central Information Commissioner had directed UPSC to disclose students’ marks and cut-offs for the preliminary examination.

Subsequently Delhi high court and Supreme Court had upheld the decision and had directed UPSC to disclose the cut-off marks besides model answers and the scaling systems. But so far UPSC hasn’t taken any step in this direction. Students have planned protests before district collectorate and have also threatened to file a PIL in the High Court.