Candidates had to Strip Down for Army Exams in Bihar

In order to curb cheating during examination and passing of answer chits in the examination hall, Bihar has shown a rare image recently during its written examination for Army recruitment. Over 1150 candidates were asked to dress only in their underwear, sit cross legged on an open ground and give the examination while sitting on the ground. The incident is of Muzaffarpur, where thousands of candidates took the written examination to join the Army.

According to the candidates they were asked to strip to their underwear by the supervisors, to ensure that they don’t cheat in the recruitment examination. According to Army Regional Office sources it was said that they were asked to strip in order to “save time on frisking so many people.”  The Director of ARO, Col. V S Godhara said, “We conduct through frisking and ensure that candidates carry minimum external things to the exam centre.”

According to a candidate who attended the examination, “As we entered Chakkar Maidan, the venue, we were asked to remove all clothes except underwear. We had no option but to comply with the instructions even though it felt odd. The gap between candidates was about eight feet in all directions. We do not expect to appear for such large scale examinations in halls, but telling us to remove our clothes was not dignified.”

For the written examination there were in total 1,159 candidates present, who took the written test. Among them 775 were for general duty category, 211 for clerical and 173 for technical. The written test lasted for an hour and the medical and physical tests for the recruitment had been conducted between 4 to 12 February. Godhra further stated that nothing was state specific in the test and he has so far only seen one photograph of the incident, which is quite vague. According to the locals, it was the second time that the Army recruitment test was being conducted in such a manner.