Aurangabad: Over 50 Candidates Miss UPSC Exam Due to Wrong Google Location

Several students from all over the Marathwada region came to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to appear for the Civil Services Examination held by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Sunday.

The students appeared for the exam at various examination centers allotted to them. However, some candidates missed the examination because Google Maps showed the location of Swami Vivekanand College at Wadgaon Kolhati instead of Samarthnagar in the city. Many students who were allotted this examination center reached Wadgaon and missed the examination when they realized they had come to the wrong center.

Many even tried to reach the examination center at Samarthnagar but were late and found the gate of the center closed. Around 50 to 60 such students were refrained from taking the examination.

UPSC organised the civil services preliminary examination on Sunday at around 25 exam centers in the city between 9:30am and 11:30am. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar was the only center for the students of the Marathwada region.

Confusion in centres

Many students from other districts of the region came to the city early in the morning. Some students who had the center at Swami Vivekanand College in Samarthnagar searched the location on Google Maps. However, they were shown the location at Wadgaon Kolhati in the Waluj area, around 14 km away from the city. The students reached the shown location at around 9 am but found that the location shown was wrong. The students returned to Samarthnagar again, but the gates of the center were closed as candidates were admitted to the examination center only by 9 am. Hence, they were not allowed to appear for the examination. Many students burst into tears as they had lost a chance to appear for the civil services examination.

A candidate from Nanded said that the address and the pin code of the center mentioned on the hall ticket were wrong. The students reached the center as per the location shown on Google Maps. The location was at Wadgaon Kolhati. Some students managed to return to the center but they were around five to ten minutes late and the gates of the college were closed. They requested the authorities but were not listened to.

Meanwhile, 7,836 students had registered for the UPSC civil services examination in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar but only 4,487 students, that is only 42 percent, appeared for the examination, official sources said.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) is conducting examinations for the recruitment of health assistants at various centres in the city. The examination for these posts was held at the Ion Digital Zone in Chikalthana MIDC area on Sunday. However, the married women candidates were restricted from appearing for the examination due to lack of marriage certificates.

Several women candidates from all over the Marathwada region came to the city to appear for the examination. They were asked to produce Aadhaar cards. However, the surnames on the Aadhaar cards were different from that of the hall tickets. Hence, the authorities did not allow them to appear for the examination. They produced the PAN cards on which the surnames of their parents and in-laws were mentioned but the officers did not consider it for the entry. The women candidates were asked to produce marriage certificates which were not available with them. Many candidates burst into tears as they were not allowed to appear for the examination.