THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With Covid-19 cases witnessing a spike in the state, those who had applied for various government posts through the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) will have to wait a while before they can appear for the qualifying examination. A PSC source said the online PSC examinations scheduled for this month-end and next month had been postponed following the jump in Covid cases. Several lakh applicants are waiting to take the exams which were deferred in March.
Even as the Centre announced unlock 1.0 from June 1, the rate of Covid infection in the state jumped up. Though the authorities had decided to schedule the online examinations for July and August, they are not in a position to announce the dates of online examination. M K Sakeer, PSC chairman, said the online examinations were scheduled to be conducted at select PSC centres and engineering colleges. However, the colleges are still closed. “It was decided to conduct the PSC examinations by cutting down half of the applications as part of complying with the social distancing norms. But in the present scenario, the exams cannot be conducted. So we decided not to schedule any examinations until the threat from the virus abates,” he said. Last month, PSC authorities planned to reschedule the exa m i n at i o n s f o r t h i s month(July) as they were optimistic about conducting them smoothly.
However, the spike in cases forced authorities to put off the exams indefinitely. Unlike other exams, PSC exams need elaborate arrangements since over 10 lakh candidates appear for each exam on a single day. Two months ago, PSC had decided to conduct the online examinations in June. For the last-grade examination, 6.9 lakh applications have been received. Originally scheduled for September, it is now likely to be held either in October or November. The validity of the existing rank list for the category will expire in June 2021.The highest number of applicants is for the LD clerk post, with 18.6 lakh candidates having applied this year. The validity of the rank list will expire in April 2021. So the new rank list can be published only after that date.