CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) on Sunday cancelled the Combined Civil Services Examination–II (Group II and Group II-A services) main written examination across the State after widespread confusion at examination centres triggered protests, road blockades and disruption in the city.
The decision came after candidates staged demonstrations at multiple centres, alleging serious lapses in exam preparedness, including last-minute changes in examination venues, non-availability of question papers and discrepancies in candidate roll numbers.
According to candidates, chaos prevailed at several centres from early morning. At Presidency College in Triplicane, where 821 candidates were scheduled to appear for the examination in two sessions, only a single-digit number of candidates had reached the venue even after 9 a.m., as many were reportedly unaware of the centre or were redirected elsewhere. Similar confusion was reported at DG Vaishnav College, Arumbakkam on EVR High Road, where candidates claimed their examination numbers were missing from the centre list.
At the Arumbakkam examination centre, candidates alleged that their allotted centres were changed at the last moment without adequate communication, leading to protests and a road blockade. Complaints were also raised from Government Arts College for Men, Nandanam where candidates said question papers had not arrived even an hour after the scheduled start time.
The Group II-A main examination, comprising an OMR-based paper on General Studies, General Intelligence and Reasoning in the morning and a descriptive Common Tamil Eligibility Test in the afternoon, was scheduled to be held on Sunday. In total, 9,223 candidates were expected to appear in the morning session and 9,244 in the afternoon across 47 centres in the State. In Chennai alone, 3,221 candidates were allotted seven centres.
The recruitment examination was notified to fill 828 vacancies in Group II and Group II-A services.
TNPSC Chairman SK Prabakar later announced that the main examination scheduled for Sunday had been cancelled. “In view of the difficulties faced by candidates and the prevailing situation, the examination has been cancelled for today. An alternative date will be announced shortly,” he said.
The Commission is expected to issue a detailed notification outlining the revised schedule and further instructions to candidates.