The mobile internet services in 26 of 35 districts of Assam were shut down for four hours on Sunday to allow the state government to conduct written tests for jobs in various departments without any glitch.
The move came in view of the question paper leaks that happened during government jobs exams in the past. As an additional measure to prevent any such malpractices, candidates and invigilators were not allowed to carry mobile phones and other electronic devices inside the test centers.
This is the second time in eight days that mobile internet services have been suspended in the state in order to conduct tests. The exams are being conducted to fill nearly 30,000 posts for which over 1.4 million candidates have applied. The third such test is scheduled on September 11, but no decision on another shutdown has been taken yet.
The first mobile internet shutdown was on August 21 when over 500,000 candidates appeared for tests for Grade IV posts in 10,036 centers in 24 districts. On Sunday, over 850,000 candidates were expected to sit for tests for around 19,000 Grade IV posts in nearly 1,900 exam centers.
Although the timings for the shutdown were supposed to be from 10am to 12pm and from 2pm to 4pm on Sunday, some service providers suspended services from early morning affecting millions of users across the state.
Chairing a review meeting on Saturday ahead of the test, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma instructed officials to ensure that the exam passes smoothly and nobody uses unfair means.
He also asked police officials to see that there are no traffic snarls which prevent candidates from reaching centers on time. On August 21, some candidates in Cachar district of Barak Valley had failed to reach their centers on time due to traffic congestion.
“I would like to apologize to the public for the inconvenience. But while mobile internet will be closed, wired internet will be available. It is important that we take this measure because if anyone sends out the question paper on WhatsApp during the exam, there will be a lot of hue and cry and we don’t want to take any risk,” Sarma said earlier this month.
On Friday, the Gauhati high court rejected a petition filed by activist Raju Prasad Sarma challenging the government’s move to shut down mobile internet services to conduct job exams.
Issuing a notice to the state government on the issue, justice Suman Shyam held that there was no breach of freedom of expression due to the shutdown of mobile internet as there is no disruption in broadband internet services.
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