UPSC Aspirants Push For Merging Oct 2020 & 2021 Exam Due To COVID-19

New Delhi: Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirants who are scheduled to take the exam on October 4 are rallying for the merger of this year’s exam with 2021 one. The posts on offer this year, they said, should accordingly be added to the ones notified for the 2021 exam, they are saying.

They have started an online petition through Change.org giving the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason behind the whole exercise, reported ThePrint. The demand has already received 9,000 signatures.

The petitioners are saying that if postponing the exam is not possible, a compensatory attempt should be offered to aspirants who are left with just one last shot to clear the exams, the report added.

“We suggest to preferably merge the UPSC 2020 cycle along with 2021 cycle with the proportional increased posts and providing a compensatory attempt to those, whose last attempt ends by 2020,” the petition states.

Key points of the petition

• In view of COVID-19, aspirants feel unsafe to take up any assignment that requires movement beyond their native place
• A candidate loses his chances of clearing the Mains exam if he gets infected with COVID in the 90-day period after the prelims. 
• This would also mean a loss of the count of one attempt

A UPSC official told ThePrint that they are monitoring the situation on a daily basis, and a “call will be taken closer to the date”.