In a big relief for Odisha Civil Services (OCS) aspirants, the State government has allowed one more compensatory attempt to those who have attained upper age limit or exhausted all attempts. Thousands of such OCS aspirants had failed to appear the OCS and Combined Competitive Recruitment Examinations this year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A resolution issued by the General Administration and Public Grievances department stated that the aspiring candidates, who had appeared in OCSE-2018 or OCSE-2019 and are ineligible to appear/compete in the OCSE-2020 due to attainment of upper age limit or exhaustion of attempts prescribed under the Rules, will be allowed one more additional compensatory attempt for appearing in OCSE- 2020.
“The candidates, who had appeared in the examination in both the years and those, who could not attend the OCSE-2019 due to the pandemic, are now eligible for one more chance even if they have attained the upper age limit of 32 and exhausted all four attempts,” said a GA department official.
He maintained that after introduction of Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) pattern in the OCS examination, the government had allowed additional compensatory attempts in the past to candidates to appear in the OCS examinations.
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Last month, a group of aspirants had moved the government demanding two compensatory attempts. They cited that the State was first to declare Covid-19 a State disaster on March 12 as part of precautionary measures, but the Odisha Public Services Commission (OPSC) continued with the OCSE 2019 prelims on March 15.
OCS aspirants thanked the government for considering their appeal and demanded to increase the upper age limit to at least 40 years and six attempts instead of existing four. “Already 17 states have already enhanced the age limit up to 40 to 44 years. Like the UPSC, the OPSC should allow six chances,” said an aspirant Bijay Lenka.
Helpline for septage management
Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday congratulated the BMC for launching a 24×7 helpline number for safe disposal of sewers. The State Capital becomes the first city in the country to have a helpline number for septage management. The civic body has launched the Safai Mitra helpline number 14420 to sensitise people on safe cleaning of septic tanks.
Courtesy: The New Indian Express
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