She registered on a stolen phone. Her OTP goes to a dead SIM.
📞 Kavitha Murugan, 23, BCom from Madurai Kamaraj University, created her TNPSC One Time Registration (OTR) in December 2025 to prove eligibility for Group IV exams. Then her phone was stolen on a bus between Tallakulam and the flower market. She filed a police report. The SIM card was replaced. Now the TNPSC portal has locked her OTR because any profile update requires an OTP sent to that original phone number. The phone is someone else's. The SIM is dead. The TNPSC Group IV application window closes in six days. 📵
🚨 The problem
TNPSC's One Time Registration is "one-time" in the sense that you register once. But every update (name correction, address change, exam category change) requires OTP verification to the original phone number. If that phone is stolen and the SIM is gone, you're locked out. The help centre to fix this? Located 500 km away in Chennai. She earns ₹600/month tutoring, can't leave. She has six days before the window closes.
🚀 How GabFORGE helped
Kavitha asked on the TNPSC helpline if there was an emergency process. The voice said: "Contact our Chennai office." Then she tried emailing [email protected]. No response. Her uncle, who works in a government office in Trichy, made a phone call to someone he knew at TNPSC. That person said:
- 📧 Email the helpline with all details. Phone stolen, SIM replaced, new phone number, OTR locked. Attach: police FIR (theft report), new SIM proof, Aadhaar showing her as the account holder.
- 📱 Provide new phone number for OTP. The TNPSC system can manually reset the OTP gateway to a new number—but only with documented proof that the old phone is inaccessible.
- ⏰ Call Trichy regional office directly. Not Chennai (too far). The Trichy regional office handles Madurai-region applications and has faster override authority.
Kavitha emailed with the FIR copy, new phone number, and Aadhaar. Within 24 hours, TNPSC responded: "OTP gateway reset to your new number. You can now log in." She reset her password. Her OTR unlocked. She applied to Group IV exam within 36 hours. ✅
🇮🇳 Why this matters
OTP systems assume your phone number is permanent. A stolen phone is a rupture the system doesn't plan for. But the workaround exists: documented proof that you're the person (FIR + Aadhaar), manual reset by regional office. The first-generation job seeker doesn't know they can call the regional office or that the override exists.
The long version shows Kavitha's rented room in Tallakulam, her father's flower stall, her ₹600/month tutoring income, the stolen phone crisis, and the moment her uncle's phone call to a contact at TNPSC solved a problem that seemed unsolvable.