The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission on Thursday declared that the exam for the Provincial Civil Services would be held in a single shift and announced the formation of a committee to review the exams to recruit review officers and assistant review officers, partially giving in to demands of protesting job aspirants.

Commission secretary Ashok Kumar came to the gate of the UPPSC office in Allahabad on Thursday afternoon and read the following statement before the protesting students: “The PCS 2024 examination will be held in a single shift and a committee will decide about the RO/ARO examinations. Till then, these examinations have been postponed.”

He, however, didn’t utter a word on the normalisation of the marking system in these examinations, a process the protesting students have opposed.

The protests, which began on Monday, were fueled by students’ opposition to the UPPSC’s decision to conduct the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) and review officer (RO) and assistant review officer (ARO) exams in four shifts over two days. The commission also proposed the use of a normalisation system for marking, given the multiple sets of question papers.

The students, however, called it a “possible bluff” and refused to withdraw their protest.

“We want the UPPSC to issue a notification on both the PCS and the RO/ARO examinations. We don’t believe in verbal assurance. Forming a committee to decide on RO/ARO is also a mere eyewash. The police must release all our friends who have been arrested in the last four days and withdraw all charges against them. We have heard that the police are intimidating them,” said Dharendra Singh, a protester.

Allahabad police commissioner Tarul Gaba said: “We are counselling the students. They will be released soon and sent home.”

Earlier, the alleged intimidation tactics of the state government failed to contain the protests on the fourth day of their dharna.

As the police wielded lathis, dragged female students from the gate of the commission, arrested four students (16 have been held so far) and barricaded the dharna site from three sides, the protesters broke the barriers and dared the police to attack them by whatever means they could.

“We want the police to act on the directives of Lucknow (the state's seat of power) and kill us here on the spot. Policemen shamelessly attacked women students early on Thursday morning and snatched the crutch of a disabled protester. They also took away four students and cordoned off the dharna site from three sides so that we couldn’t run away when they attacked us.

“We want them to act now and don’t wait even for a second. Or they must tender an apology to the women students, who are in shock,” Raj Kishore Shukla, a protester told reporters while breaking the steel cordon along with other students.

The students have been on the dharna at the UPPSC gate since Monday and demanded that the PSC and RO/ARO examinations be conducted in “one day and one shift”.

This has been their slogan and they are chanting it in protest against the commission’s decision to hold the two examinations in four shifts — on December 7 and 8 and December 22 and 23 respectively. The commission has also decided to adopt the normalisation system of marking because there would be four sets of question papers for each shift.

Deputy police commissioner Abhishek Bharati denied the use of force to remove the students from the dharna site. “Some criminals have joined the protest and are trying to disturb law and order. We have to check their activities.”

District magistrate Ravindra Kumar and police commissioner Tarun Gaba met the protesters on Thursday afternoon.