After having been caught up with unprecedented scams in the Group 4 examinations, the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) has proposed and introduced several reforms towards securing the exams and its conduct that have been heavily damaged and broken after the malpractice that had committed by the candidates with the aid of the authorities.

The reports say that the decision of introducing the reforms to grip up the conduct has been taken at a high-level meeting that was organized in Chennai. The commission has introduced reforms of installing the GPS systems in the vehicles that carry and transport exam papers and it has mandated the candidates to append their fingerprints on the answer sheets instead of placing their signatures and adding to that, the candidates appearing for the examination must answer all the questions and they are not entitled to leave a single question unanswered. 

The reports have stated that the candidates would be given the additional option of NOTA so that they can choose and circle that option in the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets if they think that the given options won't fit for the questions asked. It has been reported that as per the recent introduction of the reforms, the candidates must be present in the exam hall an hour before the scheduled time of exams and the candidates would be given 15 minutes of grace time to fill up their details in the answer sheet.

Along with installing the GPS systems in the vehicles, CCTV cameras would also be fixed to monitor its movements and the commission would introduce a new website through which the candidates can post their feedbacks to the officials about the exams. These reforms have come at the crucial time when the TNPSC has been burdened up to fix the system after it came through the unprecedented rackets in Group 4 exams that held in September 2019.

Last month, the TNPSC has admitted the occurrence of the scam after it discovered 99 candidates who appeared for Group 4 exams had committed the malpractice through bribing the agents to alter the answers following which the CBCID police department has made multiple arrests for further interrogations. 

During the probe, the agency discovered that the answers were reportedly changed in the vehicle that was transporting the answer papers to Chennai. Initially, the commission was skeptical about how most of the candidates who appeared for exams in Rameswaram and Keelakari centers have got placed in the list of top hundred. Upon investigating, the scam came to light and the TNPSC has barred these 99 candidates from appearing for TNPSC exams for their lifetime.