Candidates taking the 2020 Union Public Service Commission (USPC) examination for the Indian Public Service are agitating for the test to be postponed and merged with the 2021 examination.
In an online petition that has already gathered several thousand signatures they say the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted their preparations and they cannot make up time lost by the current 4 October date.
The preliminary examination, which is the first stage of the three-stage Civil Service Examination (CSE), was initially scheduled for 31 May. However, due to the spread of the pandemic, the UPSC postponed it to October.
However, the candidates say the continued rise of COVID-19 cases mean it would be unfair to go ahead with the October date.
The petition states that with no end in sight to the pandemic, and no vaccine available, “we feel unsafe to take up any assignment that requires movement beyond our native place”.
One of the organisers of the petition, who did not wish to be named, said more than 60,000 people took the examination every year.
“For people to prepare for the exam in such anxiety, and risk infection, is extremely unfair,” the organiser said.
“Across the world, Governments and universities are coming up with innovative ways to ensure that examinations can be conducted without imperiling the health of the youth… Our Government should also take a liberal view in the matter,” they said.
Asked if there was a chance the examination could be postponed again, a UPSC official told journalists the Commission was monitoring the situation on a daily basis, and a call would be taken closer to the date.
New Delhi, 22 August 2020
