Three-Quarters of Candidates Miss Jharkhand Government Recruitment Exam

Nearly three-quarters of the 3,22,867 candidates registered for the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission’s (JSSC) Field Worker Recruitment Examination stayed away on July 19, leaving only 86,444 aspirants — roughly 26% — to sit for the test across the state (Indian Express). The examination, held for 510 posts advertised in 2024, took place nearly two years after the notification was issued, but the long wait ended in chaos for thousands who said they learned of their allotted centres too late to reach them.

Admit cards were uploaded on the JSSC website days before the exam, yet multiple candidates from Jharkhand and Bihar said they either never received an email intimation or received it on or after the day of the test (Indian Express). The commission maintained that all information was available on its website ahead of time. For 26-year-old Lipika Mahapatra of Baharagora in East Singhbhum district, the centre allotted was Hazaribagh, over 300 kilometres away. She said she discovered the assignment only about four days before the exam after checking the website herself, while the email notifying her that the admit card had been issued arrived on July 20, a day after the examination (Indian Express). “There was no convenient travel option from my place. Even if I reached Hazaribagh, I would have had to arrange a place to stay and bear the travel expenses. It was simply not possible in three to four days,” Mahapatra said. She added that she had prepared well and was depending on the recruitment, calling the missed exam a lost major opportunity.

Rupesh Kumar, 22, from Sahibganj faced a longer haul: his centre was in Gumla, roughly 550 kilometres away. He said the email about his admit card reached him around noon on July 19, after the examination had already begun (Indian Express). “Had I known about the centre earlier, I would have had to leave at least two days in advance because of the distance. By the time I came to know, it was too late… Jharkhand has a poor transportation system, and in such heavy rainfall, many trains were not on time,” Kumar said. He had filled the application form nearly two years ago and described missing the test as losing an opportunity he had been waiting for since 2024.

Ganesh Kumar Sonkar, 21, from Hazaribagh was allotted a centre in Deoghar and said he skipped the exam because he could not afford the travel (Indian Express). The JSSC has not publicly responded to the specific allegations regarding email delays or the logic behind centre allotments beyond stating that the website carried the necessary information. With the recruitment cycle already stretched over two years, the commission has not indicated whether a re-examination or any remedial measure is under consideration for the candidates who could not appear.