Cuttack: Aswini Kumar Panda has topped the Odisha Civil Services (OCS) examination-2019, the results of which were announced by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) on Friday. Three women candidates have found a place in the top 10.
Aswini hails from Chandikhole in Jajpur district and is an engineer. The 29-year-old told the media that he did not take help from any coaching institute to crack the exam. He stressed self-study and self-evaluation. Aswini did his schooling at Jana Kalyan High School and Plus II at Ravenshaw University here.
Total 153 candidates including 56 women have qualified for the posts under Odisha Civil Services (group A & B).
Total 47,719 candidates had applied for the OCS examination and 25,780 of them appeared at the Preliminary examination held on March 15 last year. In the Preliminary examination, 1880 candidates qualified for a written examination and 1610 of them wrote the examination held in December 2020.
The interview of 307 candidates who had qualified in the written examination was held spreading over 9 days from September 22 to October 5 this year.
The OPSC had advertised for OCS examination to fill up the vacancies of 30 posts in OAS, 9 posts in OFS, OPS-7, OCS-5, ORS (Group-8)-82 and OT & AS-20. This included vacancies for 24 posts reserved for ST candidates, 18 for SC and 3 for PWD candidates.
