MP candidate gets 101.66 marks out of 100 under 'normalisation process'; job aspirants protest

NEW DELHI: Job aspirants staged a protest in Indore on Monday raising questions over a candidate getting 101.66 marks out of total 100 due to the adoption of "normalisation process" in a Madhya Pradesh government recruitment examination. The protesters alleged fraud in the recruitment examination and demanded a fair inquiry.

Eyewitnesses said the agitating unemployed youths gathered in front of the District Collector's office and handed over a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to an officer. The memorandum said in the joint recruitment examination 2023 (Van and Jail Recruitment Test 2023) of Forest and Jail departments, a candidate scored 101.66 marks out of total 100 and topped the selection list.

The result of this examination conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board, headquartered in Bhopal, was declared on December 13. After the announcement of the result, the board clarified the "process of normalisation" has been adopted in the recruitment examination as per rules, because of which candidates can get more than full marks (100) and less than zero.

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Allegations of exam fraud

Normalisation is a process for ensuring that students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the difficulty of papers they write. The process involves revising the score of a student in a way that it becomes comparable with the score of another. This becomes necessary when an examination in the same subject is held in multiple sessions, each with a different paper.

A leader of the protesters, Gopal Prajapat, told reporters, "This is the first time in the state's history that a candidate has scored more than the total marks due to the normalisation process adopted in the recruitment exam. We are protesting against the unfair process of normalisation." He alleged fraud in the recruitment exam held for the posts of forest guard, field guard (executive) and jail guard (executive), and demanded a fair inquiry. Prajapat warned that if nothing was done in the matter, job aspirants will be forced to launch a bigger agitation.