A 32-year-old unemployed man from Ahmednagar district attempted suicide outside the State secretariat on Wednesday, forcing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to call for a security overhaul. The Opposition parties, on the other hand, alleged that the government’s policy failure was forcing people to take drastic steps.

Avinash Shete was nabbed by security personnel, who recovered a bottle of kerosene and a matchbox from him, before handing him over to the Marine Drive police. Mr. Shete had lined up with hundreds of visitors outside the Garden Gate of the secretariat. Soon, he started yelling and crying, according to onlookers.

Exam grievance

Mr. Shete had appeared for an Agriculture Department examination through the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC), and was upset at not clearing it because of what he termed “technical glitches.”

Senior officials said this was Mr. Shete’s first visit to the State headquarters. He had earlier filed a complaint with the Commissioner for Agriculture, Pune. “As soon as he started yelling and pouring fuel over himself, we nabbed him and handed him over to the local police. Additional security was called in from inside the building,” said a senior police official.

Since appearing for the examination for the post of an assistant in 2013, Mr. Shete had made numerous trips to Pune to highlight errors in the evaluation system. He claimed that he had failed the test despite giving the correct answers.

Agriculture Minister Pandurang Pundalik Fundkar said, “I called him and his family to my office later. We have asked for an enquiry into his claims of mistakes in the question paper.”