The civil services preliminary exam has been decided to postpone by the Union Public Service Commission. This exam was scheduled to be held on 31 May but know due to the spread of the pandemic it is postponed until further notice.
On Monday a meeting of the Commission, chaired by Arvind Saxena was held to take the call to postpone the exam with senior UPSC officials. A new date will soon be announced by May 20, according to officials in the UPSC. The decision was taken in force because of the extension of the lockdown by the Central Government for two weeks starting May 4.
An official privy to the development said that UPSC has done what needed to be done in the current situation where Covid-19 is spreading, it is not feasible to hold such a large scale exam.
The Commission, the official added, has not taken a decision on a new date for the prelims. The official added that the date will be decided in due course of time after evaluating the situation.
Second UPSC officials said that the decision has been taken keeping mind the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown restrictions. A new date will be announced after May 20.
The second officials said that from the inaccessibility of exam venues during the lockdown as schools had been turned into quarantine centers, to ensuring students had enough time to book tickets to reach the centers, the UPSC had to address a host to issues to be able to hold the exam on May 31, it would have been very difficult. The admit cards of the students were due to release by the Commission but have decided to postpone the process in view of the current crisis.
More than 10 lakh students register for the civil services preliminary examination every year and nearly 1.6 lakh functionaries participate in conducting the exam across 2,500 centers.
Due to slated of coronavirus and lockdown announced many other premier exams, such as the Haryana Civil Services, which was slated to be held from June 5, have also been postponed.
Former UPSC chairman Vijay Singh said that we have to keep in mind not everything else has been postponed as well the preliminary exam is a huge exercise carried out in a number of centers. The logistics are vast and expansive with people involved across the country. UPSC can’t afford for anything to go wrong, it has to sustain its reputation and the exam has to be conducted in a way that no doubts are raised about it.
He further added, all that may happen is that the recruitment process may be a little delayed but that’s not a real big deal.
Check: 25 Years UPSC IAS/ IPS Prelims Topic-wise Solved Papers 1 & 2 (1995-2019)
But the lack of clarity in a fresh date brings a new set of anxieties for candidates who believe that the preparation time for the main examination may be reduced.
UPSC aspirant Snigdha Talapatra, 25, who will be writing her second attempt said that the uncertainty is worrisome, but at the same time but am hoping for positives since it will give aspirants more time to study. It’s probably going to happen in August or September and I sincerely hope we will not be given lesser time to prepare for Mains. Studying for prelims also entails studying for Mains for most us though. According to her situation is so dire that the decision to postpone the exam was inevitable
~ Gunjan Dhingra
