The Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) has now decided to conduct the Mains for the 7th to 10th state civil service examination from January 28-30, notwithstanding the current four-digit daily spike in the Covid-19 cases in the state as well as the upward surge in cases nationally.
From Tuesday (January 18), the commission has activated a link for downloading admit cards asking aspirants to approach them latest by January 25 in case of any corrections in it. The exam will be held at 14 centres, it has announced. The JPSC in a statement informed that Mains will be held for two papers, each for three hours. The first sitting will be from 10 am-1 pm and the second one will be held between 2-5 pm.
Of about 3.5 lakh who appeared in the preliminary test, close to 4300 have qualified for the Mains. However, amid the ongoing third wave of the pandemic, several aspirants for the Mains are equally concerned about failing to appear owing to Covid-19 infection and are appealing the commission to reconsider postponement of the dates or make other alternative arrangements for students like them.
For example, an aspirant from Giridih, Manish Lakra, today sent a letter to JPSC stating that he contacted the virus on Monday and may take time to recover urging the commission for postponement. He said, “Considering the spread of the virus, many like me who worked hard to qualify PT are now unsure whether we may be able to sit in the Mains or not. In case, I fail to appear, the entire hard work to crack the state civil service exam will go for a toss. I have urged JPSC to postpone the exams at least for a few weeks or the government must sound alternative arrangements for PT qualified students who are down with Covid.”
JPSC however said that they will go as per their schedule. An official, unwilling to be named, said, “Exams are cancelled in rarest of rare events but now the situation is better. JPSC had cancelled its exam last year amid the peak of the second wave. However, all examination bodies are going ahead with their schedule slowly.”
Notably, prelims for the seventh to 10 JPSC were held in September last year and results were out in November. The results ran into controversy after several aspirants claimed anomalies in the results. Opposition BJP too supported a month-long protest held by aspirants demanding cancellation of results between November and December. The saffron camp too had demanded either a CBI probe or probe by a sitting high court justice. The government denied the demands stating JPSC is an independent body. Later on, upon selective scrutiny of results, JPSC disqualified about 49 students who were earlier declared passed due to missing OMR sheets.
