BENGALURU: Even as BJP members and some aspirants are staging a protest demanding the state government to postpone the KPSC examination for gazetted probationers, the authorities have clarified that they cannot do it. Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, LK Atheeq, issued a press statement that a small group of KAS aspirants is lobbying for deferring of the gazetted probationers examination scheduled for Tuesday.
“In this effort, they are resorting to all sorts of pressure tactics. They are spreading a lot misinformation and trying to give an impression that there is a scam,” he alleged. Atheeq explained that the KPSC had issued a notification in February this year, where they fixed the prelims on May 5, but it was postponed due to Lok Sabha polls.
It was postponed to July 7, but again pushed as the UPSC exams were also scheduled on the same day. Meanwhile, the government, in an order on June 21, decided to provide an additional attempt to 2017-18 candidates, due to which, the date of the prelims was postponed to August 25.
Around 1,560 candidates of the 2017-18 batch had applied for the exams by July 21, which was the last date to do so. . “On August 3, the CM announced August 25 as the new date for the prelims. Two days later on August 5, the KPSC decided to delay the exam by two more days to August 27, as no other exam was scheduled on that day. The exam is being held on a working day, since no other free Sunday is available for the next two months. “ he added. Atheeq explained that if the exams are postponed, about 1500 students (the number of people who applied late after age relaxation was given), who got an extra chance and age relaxation, then over 2.5 lakh applicants will be put to hardship and will face injustice.
They are all prepared, booked their tickets to examination centres and ready. A lot of preparation goes into a conducting an exam for over 2.5 lakh students. About 4-5 crores is spent on printing the papers. Postponement by 2 months means the printed papers should be destroyed and new papers should be printed. The papers can not be kept for such a long time as there is risk of paper leak” he said.