The sheer callousness on the part of the concerned authorities has affected more than 25 lakh Staff Selection Commission (SSC) Examination aspirant and resulted in a Rs 20 crore loss to the Government and students. The last minute notification by the Centre for celebrations of the Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14 led to the cancellation of the SSC Combined Graduate level Exam (CGlE) on Sunday.
Government sources said that the mistake is on part of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and Ministry of Home Affairs. The direction to cancel the competitive exams came on Friday, when candidates from long distance had already undertaken the journey to reach different examination Centres across the country. The SSC had announced the April 14, 2013 date in January 2013 itself and had invited applications for direct recruitment for posts of Income Tax, Customs, Excise and other Government officials.
The loss to SSC can be calculated worth Rs 14 crore as the commission has to line up schools or other centre of examinations. The logistics involved for such mega exercise is elaborate and tedious. The students are also estimated to have lost Rs 6 crore toward travel and related expenses.
The exams were to be conducted at nine regions of SSC at various centres across country. Sources said that of 25 lakhs students about 14 lakh aspirants were from Delhi and Allahabad region. The exams have now been rescheduled for April 28. The confusion remained over the declaration of a Gazetted Holiday on birth anniversary of Babasaheb Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar. As of now April 14 is not listed as a Gazetted holiday and the practice is that Centre announces every year by a notification that April 14 will be a Gazetted Holiday.
SSC officially announced that as April 14, 2013 has been declared as closed holiday on account of the Birthday of Dr BR Ambedkar, the examination scheduled on 14.04.2013 has been postponed and will now be held on 28.04.2013. Revised Admission Certificates may be downloaded from the website of the concerned Regional Offices of SSC on or after April 21,2013.
“So far it is an established fact that we take into account the declared Gazetted, National and festival holidays and then schedule a date for any particular exam. This is a blunder on part of Centre,” admitted a DoPT official on condition of anonymity.