BHUBANESWAR: Amid exponential surge in daily infection count in the state this month, Civil Service aspirants on Friday staged a protest at the Station Square here and urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to postpone the upcoming Odisha Civil Service (OCS) Main Exam 2020.
The OCS (Main) 2020 will commence from January 20 and continue till February 6. However, aspirants said that the exam needs to be postponed in view of the growing number of infections. They said, given the daily test positivity rate (TPR) which at present is beyond 10 many aspirants are likely to get infected during the exams. The main exam will continue for 20 days.
“Around 100 candidates who will be appearing the OCS mains have already tested Covid positive which makes it very tough for them to appear for the exam,” one of the aspirants said. He also pointed out that if a candidate gets infected in the middle of the exam, he/she will be debarred from appearing the rest of the main papers and asked if the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) or the state government will take responsibility for this.
The students in their letter to the CM said as the third wave of the Covid pandemic is nearing its peak, the next few weeks will be crucial from the health perspective. Stating that many competitive exams have already been postponed due to rising cases, they said that the Odisha Staff Selection Commission has also postponed Assistant Curator exam scheduled on January 17, 2022.