VIJAYAWADA/VISAKHAPATNAM/TIRUPATI/ANANTAPUR: Less than 50 percent of candidates who applied for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil services examination prelims took the test held in four districts of the State, amid strict Covid-19 norms on Sunday. Anantapur recorded the highest of 54.3 per cent of candidates who took the exam, while only 43 per cent of the aspirants took the exam in Krishna district. The examination was held in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Anantapur.
Anantapur Collector Gandham Chandrudu said 54.21 per cent of the applied candidates took the exam and this is the highest among all the four districts. He said the percentage was high as special buses and trains were facilitated for the candidates coming from Kadapa and Kurnool districts to write the exam. In Krishna district, a total of 12,512 candidates registered for the exam, but 43 per cent of the aspirants wrote the exam. “Over 5,100 students had taken the exam and the number is expected to increase during the final exam. The entire procedure went off smoothly without hiccups, Collector A Md Imtiaz said.
The exam was conducted in 27 centres. All the candidates were frisked with metal detectors instead of manual frisking to avoid psychical touch. Body temperature of every candidate was checked and everyone was given a sanitiser. Isolation rooms were made available for those who showed coronavirus symptoms or had high body temperature.“This was my second attempt. The paper which I attempted today was difficult than last year’s final exam paper. But now I know which of my sections are weaker and hopefully, the final exam paper will be easier to solve,” Gopal Krishna, one of the aspirants, said.
In Visakhapatnam, about 45 per cent of the applicants appeared for the exam. As many as 4,863 candidates of the 10,779 applicants appeared for the exam in the morning session and 4,811 of the 10,779 appeared for the afternoon session examination in the district.
Meanwhile, Collector V Vinay Chand inspected the arrangements at the UPSC exam centre at Sophia College in Gnanapuram. The collector instructed the college staff on OMR sheets packaging and other security-related issues. The staff were also directed to ensure that all the Covid-19 norms were adhered to.
The examination was conducted at 14 centres across Tirupati. The exam was held in two sessions—9.30 am to 11.30 am and from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm.
According to officials, of the total 6,790 candidates, only 3,234 took the first paper in the morning and the attendance percentage was 47.63. The number of candidates taking the examination to 3,207 for the afternoon exam and the attendance percentage recorded at 47.23.