The Jharkhand Public Service Commission’s (JPSC) notification on Saturday postponing the Mains examination of the State Civil Service has depressed the examinees. Most of the candidates are feeling low and apprehending a return of the “same old days once again in the Commission.”
The apprehension is not baseless considering the dumpy past of the JSPC in conducting examinations as most of them are under the scanner, leaving the candidates a clueless lot, forcing them to search for alternatives for fulfilling their dream of becoming an administrative officers.
One such aspirant from Daltonganj, Vijay Kumar said, “Since the formation of this State in 2001, only four JPSC exams have been conducted of which only the fourth JPSC exam was held with transparency. This was the fifth JPSC. The results of previous exams were published after around two years due to some glitches. In this situation, Jharkhand government should prepare an annual calendar for conducting PSC exams like Union PSC and Chhattisgarh or UP PSC exams.”
Notably, fourth JPSC (Mains) scheduled to commence on Monday was postponed by the Commission on Saturday following a quota row raised by students and political groups after the Preliminary Test (PT) results were out around three months back. The request for this exam delay was made to the Commission through a letter from State Personnel Department dated June 14.
“Several outsiders who were to appear in Mains had arrived in the State capital. JPSC’s eleventh hour notification without information on the next date of this examination is not justified,” Ratan Singh, another examinee for this prestigious blue-collared job examination said.
Citing the technical faults of Commission in this examination on regular basis, Doranda based Farhan Rahman, Director of Wizard IAS Coaching centre who is mentoring students over a decade said, “The mentioned options of most of the questions in PT are always incorrect. In such scenario, the future of aspiring candidates is in doldrums as the PT exam is taken twice. However, the fourth JPSC conducted with transparency had brought some hope for many aspirants. But, the process of delaying the Mains exam again has clearly shown the lack of coordination between our state government authorities.”
Sources maintained that many of the examinees had blamed Commission for selecting more outsiders instead of those reserved candidates hailing from the state as per the norms. “A group of examinees had met CM on this issue on Friday,” said sources.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren is said to have held a meeting with the Chief Secretary and senior officials on Saturday and directed the Personnel Department to send a request to the JPSC for postponement of the exam.“The matter was pointed out three months back by some students and leaders when the PT results were declared. Government could have rectified it by now without delaying the date of Mains,” Ratan added.
Media reports mention that the controversy over the issue is two-fold, selecting successful candidates 13 times against the number of posts and keeping Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes ones in their original quota despite they secured marks to enter general quota.