Several districts in Rajasthan, including state capital Jaipur, faced a two-day dawn-to-dusk mobile internet shutdown on account of the Patwari recruitment examination. The clampdown was to eliminate the potential use of unfair means in the recruitment examinations.
The internet was shut from 6 am to 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday because 15.62 lakh candidates appeared for the examination across 1,100 examination centres across the state. Jaipur alone had 230 examination centres.
The shutting down of mobile internet caused inconvenience to the general public and drew anger.
Shutting down the internet during examinations is common in Rajasthan. Last month, the teachers’ entrance examination held on September 26, saw the same unprecedented shutdown of mobile internet services across the state on the orders of the administration.
Due to the suspension of the internet, local businesses were also affected and mostly stayed shut across the state. The businesses of cab services and food delivery aggregators were hit hard, as they are largely dependent on mobile internet service to carry out their operations smoothly. However, voice calls on landlines, and broadband was in service.