CUTTACK: The preliminary examinations for the Orissa Civil Services examination-2006 would be held on May 11, 2007 (Friday). The Orissa Public Service Commission (OPSC) announced this here on Saturday much to the relief of nearly 50,000 aspirants as the last OCS examination was held almost five years ago.

The Government had earlier in March 2006 made a requisition to the OPSC for recruitment of at least 300 class II posts including 73 OAS and 93 OFS officers. But the OPSC came out with an advertisement in August last year, fixing October 3 as last date for receipt of the applications.

Resentment was brewing among aspirants for the inordinate delay caused by the Commission to fix the date of the examination. Forming an association, the aspirants had even threatened to gherao the OPSC office, its chairman's residence and had planned to stage road blockades on NH-5 at Cuttack and Bhubaneswar on February 28 demanding early conduct of the examinations.

Clarification

OPSC authorities had however clarified earlier that the delay in OCS examination was caused by the enormous exercise involved in the process of recruitment. The OPSC is conducting the civil service examination on UPSC pattern for the first time, for which they were adequately cautious over every aspect of the examination, which was time consuming.

OPSC secretary P K Samal said on Saturday that the examination committee had put in a lot of exercise to finalize a suitable date for the examination as most of the competitive examinations were fixed for May. "Since most of the all India examinations are to be held on Sundays, we decided to hold the one-day preliminary (OCS) exams on a working day," Samal said.

He said there would be nearly 150 examination centres spread across five zones of the state. "The one-day exam would be of two papers, and as per the practice of UPSC, the first paper in the would be an optional subject, while the second paper would be of general studies (GS) paper," Samal said.

Samal said the OPSC recruitment tests would be held under Orissa Conduct of Examination Act-1988. For the first time, district collectors would be engaged as the chief coordinators for the smooth conduct of the examinations in their respective districts, he added.

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