UPSC civil services prelims: 46% attendance recorded in Ludhiana

At least 17 centres were set up at various schools and colleges for 6,120 candidates.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) preliminary exam witnessed low attendance as merely 46% of candidates reached the centres in Ludhiana on Sunday.

An aspirant undergoing thermal screening at one of the examination centres in Ludhiana on Sunday. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

At least 17 centres were set up at various schools and colleges for 6,120 candidates, but 54% of candidates remained absent.

The centre set up at Government College for Girls was reserved for physically challenged aspirants.

The examination is held in two sittings.

According to information, 2,859 candidates appeared in the first exam from 9:30 am to 11:30 am and 3,261 gave it a miss. While 3,280 candidates did not appear for the second exam that was conducted from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm. And only 2,840 candidates appeared for the second paper.

Several candidates did not turn up for the exam due to Covid-19 fear.

Cops were deployed at the exam centres for the frisking of candidates. All the candidates had to undergo the thermal screening process at the entry gate and proper social distancing norms were followed.

An examinee Ashish Rajpal said, “I found paper 1 difficult as more questions were related to history. The questions from commerce, general knowledge was also tricky. There were proper Covid arrangements at the exam centre and social distancing was maintained inside the classrooms as well.”

Municipal corporation zonal commissioner, Kulpreet Singh, said, “Proper arrangements were made at all the examination centres and the paper was conducted smoothly.”

The UPSC conducts the nationwide exam for recruitment to various civil services of the government of India every year.