E-Paper
PCS (Prelims)-2021: 54% of total registered candidates give exam a miss
The total number of candidates who registered 691,173 were represented in the exam only by 46%, with 54% of them choosing to not appear.
Combined State/Upper Subordinate Services (Preliminary)-2021, commonly known as PCS (Preliminary)-2021, and Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF)/Regional Forest Officer (RFO) Preliminary Examination-2021 was held across the state on Sunday.
A total of 6,91,173 candidates had applied for 538 posts of PCS and 16 ACF/RFO posts. The preliminary exam was conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) in two shifts from 9.30 am to 11.30 am and 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm, informed UPPSC secretary Jagdish.
UPPSC had set up 1,505 examination centres in 31 districts of Uttar Pradesh for the exams, with Prayagraj alone having 133 centres for 60,886 registered candidates. Likewise, there were 55,131 candidates registered to appear in the recruitment exam in Lucknow.
Other districts where UPPSC conducted the preliminary exam included Agra, Aligarh, Basti, Bulandshahr, Etawah, Ghazipur, Hardoi, Jyotibaphule Nagar, Maharajganj, Mainpuri, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Shahjahanpur, Azamgarh, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Ghaziabad, Jaunpur, Jhansi, Kanpur Nagar besides Barabanki, Meerut, Moradabad, Rae Bareli, Varanasi, Sitapur, Mirzapur and Mathura.
To deter any attempt to use smart tools for using unfair means in the recruitment exams, jammers were installed at 113 sensitive centres across the state, the officials added.
“Out of the total registered 6,91,173 candidates, mere 46% appeared in the exam with 54% giving it a miss. The exam passed off peacefully with no report of any untoward incident,” the UPPSC secretary said.
A maximum of 39,467 candidates out of the total 60,886 (64.80%) appeared in the exam in Prayagraj, while the lowest attendance of 29% was witnessed in Etawah and Mainpuri districts, he added.
Earlier, in January, the commission had announced that it planned to conduct the Combined State/Upper Subordinate Services (Preliminary) Examination-2021 along with Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF)/Range Forest Officer (RFO) Preliminary Exam-2021 on June 13 and June 20, respectively.
But it had to be postponed due to the second wave of Coronavirus. The decision to postpone the exams had followed in wake of many aspirants of the exams, both at the individual level and collective level, demanding that the commission postpone the exams seeing the situation in the state was worrying at that point.
Earlier, the number of posts was 400, but later it increased by 138, including 52 posts of sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs).
