Uncertainty looms large on the main examination of the combined civil services of Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) due to the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic.
As per the schedules announced, the mains examination will be held from January 28 till January 30. A total of 14 examination centers across Jharkhand has been selected and students were asked to download the admit card from the website of the JPSC from January 15 onwards.
“But the JPSC has not uploaded admit cards so far and we are not sure whether the Commission will conduct the mains examination or not? The JPSC should clarify the matter,” an aspirant of the JPSC said.
The JPSC issued a notification to hold a combined civil service examination comprising seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth JPSC against 252 seats. A total of 4293 students from different categories were declared successful namely unreserved (1897), ST (1057), SC (389), OBC (244), EBC (401), and EWS 305. However, students raised questions over the examination process and the result as they alleged corruption in declaring preliminary results.
But the third wave of Covid-19 has further made the matter uncertain as the Hemant Soren government has extended the period of the mini-lockdown till January 31. Notably, on January 3 when chief minister Hemant Soren had chaired the meeting of disaster management to review the situation the direction was clear that all offline examinations in Jharkhand will remain suspended. But the JPSC has not issued any statement on whether or not the examination will be postponed.
According to the direction of the government, all public places like parks, fitness centers, stadiums, schools, and colleges will remain closed.
Even if the JPSC gets special permission from the government and makes special arrangements for the examination, it hardly minimizes risk factors. It will be difficult to ascertain whether or not an aspirant is affected by the Covid 19.
“Suppose a student is indeed affected by the pandemic what arrangement will be made for such students. Students will have the problem of arranging logistics for their stay in the district of their examination centre because they may face the problem of accommodation,” said another JPSC aspirant.
Former JPSC aspirant Manoj Kumar who fights for the cause of students said that the JPSC should not risk the lives of students.
“Students have challenged the JPSC result at the High Court and the matter is scheduled for a hearing. The JPSC should wait till the hearing takes place. The way the pandemic has spread, the JPSC must immediately postpone the examination.