OMR question papers for constables in para-military forces

The Union Home Ministry has approved a revised scheme for recruitment of constables in the central para-military forces, an official statement said here today.

The new scheme is aimed at making the process of recruitment more objective and maximizing the use of technology, it said.

Application forms will now be designed centrally in optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets so that they can be scrutinized promptly with computers.

The physical efficiency test will now be only qualifying in nature and will not carry any marks. The written test will consist of OMR-based objective type multiple-choice questions. The question papers will be set centrally. Interviews will be discontinued. A website will be opened along with a help line and a complaint line, giving telephone numbers and SMS-based assistance, the statement said.

No officer against whom departmental proceedings for major penalty is pending will be associated with the recruitment process. Similarly, an officer against whom charges of bungling in previous recruitment have been proved will not be associated with the recruitment process for the next five years. No officer belonging to the state in which the recruitment is being done will be a member of any recruitment board for that state. Biometric methods will be used at all stages of recruitment, it said.

The constabulary forms the major component of central police forces. In 2008, about 18,000 vacancies of constables were filled in various central police forces, the statement added.

NNN