Revised Quota-free BCS Results

4 times more passed

14 July 2013, 18:44 PM

UPDATED 15 July 2013, 03:08 AM

Staff Correspondent

Following countrywide protests against the introduction of a quota system in the preliminary phase of the 34th BCS exams, the Public Service Commission yesterday came up with a reviewed list of 46,250 successful candidates, the highest so far. Earlier on Tuesday, the PSC in its results based on the quota system declared 12,033 candidates as having qualified. "These 46,250 candidates include the 12,033 whom we announced as successful in our previous list," PSC Exam Controller (cadre) AYM Nesar Uddin told The Daily Star. The result was on the commission's website www.bpsc.gov.bd. SMA Faiz, former chairman of the PSC, said the candidates selected through the revised results would have been deprived had the commission not carried out a review. The first result indicates that the PSC was more focused on filling up posts under the quotas, he told The Daily Star yesterday. Around 2.21 lakh applicants filled up forms online to sit for the first-round objective type of tests at 174 centres across the country on May 24 to contend for 2,052 posts in different cadres, with more than 1.93 lakh taking the exams. The PSC in a press release yesterday said the commission at a special meeting on Saturday reviewed the results of the 34th BCS exams and related issues. The commission did not disclose how it had prepared the revised result, scrapping the earlier one. A PSC source said the last qualifying mark selected for quota candidates was considered as the benchmark for success in the exam. However, at least four candidates who were on the previous list told The Daily Star over phone that they had been dropped from the revised result. This newspaper was yet to get an official version on this issue from the PSC. Currently, 56 percent of government jobs are reserved under quotas, leaving only 44 percent for merit-based recruitment. The quota provision was applicable in the final results after written tests and viva in earlier BCS tests, but the commission this time introduced it at preliminary exams, triggering widespread commotion among the unsuccessful candidates. Joined by students, the agitated candidates in Dhaka and elsewhere took to the streets on Wednesday. They blocked the Shahbagh intersection for more than 11 hours on Wednesday, demanding a cancellation of quotas. Their demonstration turned violent on Thursday. In the face of the agitation, the PSC announced on July 10 it was reconsidering the results, but failed to pacify the demonstrators. Students at Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jahangirnagar universities continued their demonstrations against the quota system and called a strike at all educational institutions yesterday. At Dhaka University, a group of demonstrators locked the main entrances of Curzon Hall, Arts Building, Lecture Theatre Building and Education and Research (IER) Building early in the morning to enforce the strike. But the university authorities unlocked the gates at around 8.00am, said DU acting proctor Amzad Ali, adding that regular classes and examinations were being held at the university. Activists and leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra Union and Progressive Students' Alliance brought out two processions on the campus demanding quota reforms. Over 2,000 students of Rajshahi University blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway, boycotting classes to observe the strike, causing traffic gridlock for around 45 minutes. Students of Jahangirnagar and Chittagong universities held a rally on their campus demanding that the quota provision be cancelled. Meanwhile, a writ petition was filed with the High Court (HC) yesterday challenging the legality of quota provision at BCS examinations. Two BCS examinees -- SM Asaduzzaman and Md Harun -- filed the petition seeking an HC directive on the government to suspend the existing provision of 56 percent quota in the BCS exams. The cabinet secretary, education secretary and Bangladesh Public Service secretary have been made respondents to the petition. Advocate Eunus Ali Akond, a counsel for the petitioners, told The Daily Star that the HC might hear the petition today.