Bhubaneswar, Jan 19: Hundreds of junior teacher aspirants on Thursday staged protest in the city alleging irregularities in recruitment.
The aspirants gathered in front of the Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) office and alleged that the merit list for recruitment to 20,000 Junior Teacher (schematic) posts published was prepared without announcing the cut-off mark.
Besides, they alleged that there were several anomalies in issue of admit cards some of which had fake names and photos on them.
They were not convinced after a discussion with the OSEPA director and marched towards 5T Chairman VK Pandian’s residence. Later, they staged a sit-in in front of Bhubaneswar Club as police did not allow them to go ahead.
However, OSEPA authorities in their clarification said the 20,000 posts were advertised in different categories and name of 18,788 candidates were published in the draft merit list. The draft merit list was published taking into account availability of candidates in different categories.
The ineligible candidates shortlisted in the draft merit list will be disqualified after certificate verification during release of the final list, the OSEPA authorities added.
Besides, the authorities said admit cards were automatically generated on the basis of information submitted by the applicants and the candidates were allowed to sit for the exams only after verification of name, photos and through biometric attendance, they clarified.