The protesters have alleged fraud in the recruitment examination and demanded a fair inquiry.

Normalisation is a process for ensuring students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the difficulty of papers they write. The process involves revising the score of a student in a way that it becomes comparable with the score of another.

When the same subject is examined in several sessions, each using a different paper, this becomes required.

According to witnesses cited in a news agency PTI report, a group of disgruntled jobless youths gathered in front of the district collector’s office on Monday and gave an official a letter written to Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.

According to the memorandum, a candidate who got 101.66 out of 100 on the joint recruitment exam 2023 (Van and Jail Recruitment Test 2023) of the forest and jail departments topped the selection list.

The Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board, which has its main office in Bhopal, declared the results of the test on December 13.

Following the results release, the board explained that the “process of normalisation” had been implemented in the recruitment exam in accordance with the regulations, allowing applicants to get more than full marks (100) and less than zero.

A leader of the protesters, Gopal Prajapat, told reporters, “This is the first time in the state’s history that a candidate has scored more than the total marks due to the normalisation process adopted in the recruitment exam. We are protesting against the unfair process of normalisation.”

He alleged fraud in the recruitment exam held for the posts of forest guard, field guard (executive) and jail guard (executive), and demanded a fair inquiry.

Prajapat warned that if nothing is done in the matter, job aspirants will be forced to launch a bigger agitation.