UPPSC PCS prelims will be held in one day, decides commission following protests

NEW DELHI: Following large-scale protests by aspirants, the Uttar Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (UPPSC) has decided to conduct the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) in a single shift as earlier. For the Review Officer-Assistant Review Officer (RO-ARO) exam, the commission has constituted a committee to study and analyse all aspects to ensure a fair and transparent selection process, which will submit its report soon.

“It is hereby informed that from the point of view of transparency, it was decided to conduct the Combined State / Senior Subordinate Services (P.A.) Examination-2024 in two days. In view of the specificity of the Combined State / Senior Subordinate Services Examination, the Commission has, in principle, decided to conduct it in one day as before,” the commission Secretary Ashok Kumar said in an official notice.

Several candidates have been protesting outside the commission’s headquarters in Prayagaraj against its decision to hold the recruitment exams in multiple shifts and the use of normalisation method for evaluation. Thousands of youth were seen holding placards reading ‘one day one shift’ and ‘no normalisation’.

Protests for 'one day one shift' exam

The UP civil services exam was scheduled for December 7 and 8 while the RO ARO recruitment exams were slated to be held on December 22 and 23 in three shifts.

Recently, the commission announced its decision to hold the competitive exams in multiple shifts due to unavailability of sufficient number of examination centres to accommodate all the aspirants. UPPSC also notified the normalisation process to be used for evaluation in the objective-type exams to be held in more than one shift. UPPSC had constituted a high-level committee of experts to recommend the evaluation process.

UPPSC Secretary Ashok Kumar also told PTI that it was the commission's policy to designate only government educational institutions as examination centres, with each centre located within a 10-km radius of the district headquarters. Around 5,76,000 candidates have registered for the PCS exam while the examination centres are only available for 4,35,000 candidates across all 75 districts, he added. "Given this situation, it is necessary to conduct the examination over two days," Kumar was quoted as saying.

The commission cancelled the RO ARO exam held on February 12 this year due to reports of a paper leak. CM Adityanath informed about the exam cancellation via social media and announced that the test will be held in the next six months.

Following protests by candidates for a re-exam, UPPSC formed an internal committee to examine the irregularities and announced a Special Task Force (STF) investigation into the alleged paper leak.