The Maharashtra Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has appointed a three-member independent high-level committee to look into the complaints linked to the recruitment row, including the perfect 100 percentile scored by some candidates. Until the review is completed, the authority has frozen the recruitment process.

Chaired by Johnny Joseph, former chief secretary, the committee comprises Professor Shyamprasad Karagde, Ph.D., and Professor Daska Satyanarayana Murthy, Ph.D., at IIT Bombay.

“The committee will objectively verify all complaints and accompanying evidence received within the stipulated timeframe. The Authority has also sought a clarification from TCS regarding this matter,” said the MMRDA in a statement.

The Maharashtra Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (MMRDA) recruitment exam has come under scrutiny after several candidates secured perfect scores following normalisation. Engineers’ groups and political leaders have questioned the results and sought an independent inquiry. The MMRDA, however, has rejected the allegations, saying the examination was conducted by a government-approved agency and the results were prepared according to prescribed rules.

Q) When did the recruitment begin?

The MMRDA started the recruitment process in February for 235 posts across 16 technical and non-technical categories. Of these, 82 were for assistant/junior engineer (civil) posts. The recruitment attracted 26,749 applications.

The computer-based test, conducted by TCS, was held on May 11 and 12. Of the total applicants, 20,459 appeared for the examination. For the civil engineering posts, 14,714 candidates appeared, meaning there were nearly 180 candidates competing for each post.

TCS iON has been authorised by the Maharashtra government under a 2022 government resolution to conduct online examinations for such recruitments.

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The provisional merit list was released on August 14, nearly three months after the examination.

Q) What triggered the controversy?

The results showed unusually high scores, with several candidates getting a perfect 200 out of 200 after normalisation.

Among the civil engineering candidates, three toppers had normalised scores of 200. Their raw scores were 196, 194 and 194 respectively. Normalised scores are adjusted marks used when the same exam is conducted in multiple sessions.

The examination had 100 multiple-choice questions, of which 60 were technical questions related to civil engineering. The remaining 40 covered general knowledge, aptitude and reasoning, Marathi and English.

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“Even those who study for most of their day find it difficult to cross the 170- 175 mark,” said Prasad Jadhav, Pune secretary of the Engineers Association, a group representing around 35,000 unemployed engineering students who regularly appear for government recruitment examinations.

Q) What other discrepancies have been flagged?

The Engineers Association has compared the performance of some of the top-ranked candidates with their scores in earlier government recruitment examinations.

According to the association, some of the candidates had either not appeared for previous examinations or had scored significantly lower in them.

For example, the second-ranked candidate, who scored 194 out of 200 in the MMRDA examination before normalisation, had appeared for recruitment examinations conducted by CIDCO, the BMC and the Town Planning Authority. He scored 80 out of 200 in the CIDCO examination, 7.5 out of 100 in the BMC examination and 101.13 out of 200 in the TPA examination.

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The fourth-ranked candidate had earlier scored 124 out of 200 in a Pune Municipal Corporation examination and 15 out of 100 in a BMC examination.

The association said that among the top 20 candidates in the MMRDA civil engineering merit list, the highest score in the BMC examination was 34.25 out of 100.

Congress state general secretary Dhananjay Shinde has separately alleged discrepancies in the provisional merit list and demanded an inquiry. He has also claimed that the fathers of four of the top candidates held senior positions in the Urban Development department. These allegations have not been independently verified.

Q) What questions have been raised about the examination centres?

The association has also flagged the concentration of top-ranked candidates at one examination centre.

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According to its analysis, 13 of the top 20 civil engineering candidates appeared at the Wadi centre in Nagpur. This included the top three candidates.

“This is too much of a coincidence,” Jadhav said.

The association has sought examination centre records and other digital evidence to establish whether there was anything unusual about the pattern.

Q) What are those questioning the exams demanding?

The Engineers Association has sought CCTV footage from the examination halls, audit log reports showing candidates’ answering patterns and response times, and response sheets of candidates who secured perfect scores and those selected for the 82 civil engineering posts.

It has also sought independent verification of the selected candidates.

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The association has raised concerns over the delay in publishing the results, saying CCTV footage from examination centres may be retained only for a limited period. It has therefore asked the MMRDA and the state government to preserve the relevant records.

Shinde has also demanded an inquiry, a call supported by NCP leaders Supriya Sule and Rohit Pawar.

Q) What does the MMRDA say?

The MMRDA has rejected the allegations and said the entire recruitment was conducted as per the government-prescribed procedures.

On the perfect scores, officials said the candidates had not actually scored 200 marks in the examination. The scores reached 200 after normalisation, which was carried out using the mean standard deviation formula because the examination was conducted in multiple sessions over two days.

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The authority said the normalisation process was based on a 2022 government resolution.

It also said candidates were allowed to raise objections after the examination. A total of 340 objections were received and resolved, the MMRDA said.

“Criticism and allegations regarding a scam or malpractice in this recruitment examination are entirely baseless. No malpractice of any kind has occurred during this process,” the authority said.

The MMRDA said the examination was conducted by a government-approved agency and that the normalisation and calculation of marks followed government-mandated methods. The provisional merit list is currently being verified, and the final list will be published after the process is completed.