Put Off OPSC Civil Services Main Exam, Aspirants Urge Odisha CM

With daily Covid infections continuing to rise exponentially in Odisha, several aspirants have sought the intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to postpone the upcoming Odisha Civil Service (OCS-2020) main examination. 

The Odisha Civil Services (Main) Examination-2020 is slated to be conducted from January 20, 2022 to February 6, 2022 (Except 26.01.2022 & 05.02.2022).  

In a letter dated January 13, some candidates expressed apprehension that some of them may miss the scheduled examination due to the prevailing Covid pandemic.

“Lot of candidates those who will appear the OAS mains have tested Covid positive now. It will be very tough for them to appear the exam,” the aspirants highlighted.

“First of all, the 3rd wave of Covid pandemic is nearly at the peak and next few weeks are really crucial from health perspective. Every day the cases of Covid positive are increasing exponentially. It has already reached a spike of more than 8700 cases in a single day. The test positivity rate is also more than 10%,” the aspirants wrote.

The applicants argued that educational institutions and hostels have been closed, several varsities have cancelled examinations and Orissa High Court is closed till January 17. The Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) has already postponed Assistant Curator exam scheduled on January 17 2022 while OPSC has also postponed its interview and document verification programme for taching posts in Home science, Physics and Journalism.

Stating that few candidates tested positive for Covid after appearing in the first phase of the UPSC Civil Service Main Examination till January 10, the aspirants said as the OPSC mains exam is a 20-day-long process, there is a high risk of getting infected during the examination.

The aspirants prayed to the CM to pass the necessary orders to OPSC to postpone the Odisha Civil Service (Main) Exam-2020 till the situation became stable.