‘Six answers wrong in TNPSC Group-II exam’

CHENNAI: Private coaching centres have complained that the answers for six questions were wrong in the tentative answer key list released by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (

TNPSC

) for the recently concluded Group-II exams.

K Nanthakumar, secretary, TNPSC said more than 2,000 candidates have challenged the tentative answer key and an expert team will look into the matter.

More than 4.5 lakh candidates appeared for the Group-II exams conducted on November 11 to fill 1,200 vacant municipal commissioner, secretariat and subordinate services in various state government departments.

The question paper contained two parts General Knowledge (GK) and language each part carried 100 questions.

Tentative answer keys for these 200 questions were released on November 13 and candidates for the first time were allowed to challenge the released answer key.

Accordingly, more than 2,000 have approached the TNPSC and challenged the answers for various questions.

S Natrajan Subramanian, who trains candidates for TNPSC exams, said that wrong answers were given for six questions in the GK section.

Question number 153 asked where was the the first Nepal-India ‘Think Tank’ summit held. While the right answer is Kathmandu, the released answer key said Kolkata. For the previous question, TNPSC said Thanjavur district has the highest output of food grains. But the concerned district collector’s official website says Villupuram contributes more than 10% of the state’s food and tops the production chart since 2013-14.

Contrary to Tamil Nadu textbooks which say that Pulithevar, 18th century native ruler, extended co-operation to French, the key to question no. 139 says he extended support to the Dutch.

Question number 111 is on guaranteed number of working days for an employee under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Candidates were given four options to choose 50, 100, 150 and 200. TNPSC says the answer is 100. But Natrajan argued that Rajasthan government increased it to 150 in 2013. Hence, both options C and D are right.

“In question number 183 on National Agricultural policy’s anticipated growth rate, the answer key says it is 4%. While the policy is aimed at a growth rate of more than 4%, it is right even if the candidates chose the other two options, which are 6% and 8%,” he told TOI. Besides this, the question paper got the spelling of insect ‘pink bollworm’ wrong. When put together, candidates are eligible for nine grace marks.

Responding to this, Nanthakumar said, “An expert team will look into the challenges made. If the team finds that the answers in the tentative key are wrong, marks will be awarded to all the 4.5 lakh candidates.”