Recruitment exam: Mobile internet to be suspended in Assam on Sunday

Guwahati, Sep 28 The mobile internet services will be suspended in Assam on Sunday for eight hours as the recruitment examination is set to take place in more than 800 centres across the state, officials said.

According to an official statement, more than 7 lakh aspirants will take written exam in 27 districts of the state and the internet will be suspended from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

“A whopping 7,34,080 candidates have applied for appearing in the recruitment examinations to be conducted in two shifts; the first shift for Bachelor's Degree level Class-III posts from 9 am to 12 noon and the second shift for HSLC (Driver) posts from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm, in 822 examination centres spread across the state of Assam on that day, including certain centres which have a past history of cheating and other malpractices,” the statement mentioned.

The official order further said: “In the interest of holding free, fair and transparent written examination and also to prevent arising of any law and order issues having bearing on public safety Mobile Internet/ Mobile Wi-fi/ Mobile Data Service of all Mobile Service Providers in the entire state of Assam from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on 29th September 2024 (Sunday).”

However, it was clarified that the voice calls and the broadband connectivity based on fixed telephone lines shall remain functional during the aforesaid period.

A senior official said that the state administration desires that the written examination should be held in a free, fair and transparent manner to select the best candidates purely on merit and no malpractices should be allowed during the examination.

“It has been observed on earlier such occasions that some unscrupulous elements resorted to unfair means using different Mobile Applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp, X(Twitter), Youtube and Cam-scanner etc. which are based on Internet/Wi-Fi/ Mobile Data Connectivity and the state government does not want any loopholes in the examination process which might have the potential to create doubt or mistrust in the public mind on the fairness of the recruitment process,” the official said.

The official also mentioned that there exists a substantial apprehension that the anti-social elements or the organised groups shall try to take advantage of the situation by resorting to rumour-mongering through social media and may try to destabilise the process of examination.

“We have clearly reviewed the matter and in the interest of holding a free, fair and transparent public examination, it is prudent and expedient to plug all possible loopholes including resorting to temporary disabling of Mobile Internet/ Mobile data Connectivity during examination hours Sunday,” he added.

Source: IANS