STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Thousands of candidates turned up at designated exam centres across Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday as the Public Service Commission went ahead with its Combined Competitive Examination, ignoring calls for postponement amid widespread flight cancellations and a row over upper age limit.
The test began at 10 am as scheduled, ending last-minute uncertainty amid tension between Lok Bhavan and the Omar Abdullah government over demands to relax the upper age limit.
The elected government, political parties and aspirants have been advocating for postponement of the exam, while Lok Bhavan insisted that it would not delay it.
Referring to the situation as extraordinary, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote to the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) chairman on Saturday, saying that the ongoing disruption in flight services has caused widespread travel chaos and it has been “further compounded by the prevailing uncertainty” arising from Lok Bhavan’s “delay” in approving age relaxation for aspirants.
However, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha refuted the claim that Lok Bhavan has caused a delay.
Sinha responded through social media that he returned the file the same day on December 2 with a query about the possibility of holding the examination on the scheduled date if the upper age limit was relaxed, but received no follow-up from the government.
The post said the JKPSC published an advertisement for the examination on August 22, with the exam scheduled for December 7.
The commission had fixed a maximum age limit of 32 years for open merit candidates, 34 years for reserved or in-service candidates and 35 years for physically challenged persons.
However, the government sought relaxation of the upper age limit to 35 years for open merit candidates, 37 years for reserved or in-service candidates and 38 years for physically challenged candidates.
“This exam is a dream for a lot of us. We were hopeful the relaxation would come through,” said Abhinandani Gupta, a student, while waiting outside her designated centre in Jammu.
She said a postponement would have benefited those who missed the exam, but it would have been a setback for candidates who had prepared intensely for it.
Another aspirant, Sahil Mathur, said many students were expecting that the paper would be deferred, but the JKPSC’s midnight notification announcing that the exam would be conducted as per schedule ended the uncertainty.
He expressed “heart-felt sympathy” for those who were unable to appear for the test.
“The chief minister had sought age relaxation. What happened later, we don’t know. The students were protesting till the last day. The uncertainty caused real hardship,” he said.
Many aspirants said they were unsure until the last moment whether the exam would take place or not, amid friction between the lieutenant governor’s office and the elected government.