Shillong, Nov 24: The North East Students Organisation (NESO) has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for compensatory attempt in 2022 as a one-time relief for all candidates attempting UPSC’s Civil Services and all other Group A, B & C Central Government exams, who were severely affected due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In a memorandum to the PM on Wednesday, NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa said, “(We are) sending this representation to you with a deep sense of anguish on the very crucial issue of UPSC Civil Services Exam and all the Group A, B & C Central government exam aspirants of India in general, and for North-Eastern states in particular who got badly affected due to COVID pandemic.”
“In this context, NESO is urging upon the Government of India to take a sympathetic call on this very crucial issue by considering relaxation for pandemic affected years,” he said.
NESO also urged that all the aspirants who had the last attempt in the year 2020 should be entitled with two years age relaxation and two more attempts.
“The aspirants who had the last chance in 2021 should be given another attempt considering the fact that they were affected for the year due to the pandemic.”
“This is to be made applicable to all aspirants who are ineligible either due to being age-barred or by virtue of exhausting their permissible number of attempts, in UPSC Civil Services exam along with all other Group A, B & C service recruitment exam conducted by Central government (UPSC/SSC/IBPS/RBI etc.),” he added.
It said even those who attempted the paper also faced many hardships due to this pandemic.
NESO also mentioned that the candidates in essential services and frontline workers had to attend to the rigorous COVID duty during the pandemic, and as a result they were unable to effectively attempt the paper.
It also said the candidates from remote areas and hinterlands had to migrate back from their study centres to their native places and the candidates from economically poor section had to bear the intense brunt of lockdown as many of them lost their jobs.
“Mental distress and panic situation all round was the environment at that time. Inappropriate reading material, closure of coaching centers and libraries, anxiety and depression issues due to lockdown are some other consequences of the sufferings related to this pandemic.”
“The similar condition existed for the candidates of 2021 also. In fact, they had to suffer twice, in 2020 and then in 2021, considering the fact the 2nd Covid wave was very destructive… Many candidates lost their closed family members, or their 2-3 months got completely wasted on account of time taken for post-covid recovery. Similar conditions were faced by the aspirants of rest of the Group A, B & C Central government direct recruitment exams like UPSC ESE, IES/ISS, CDS, CAPF, SSC CGL, IBPS PO SBI PO, RBI Grade B etc. In a way, these 2 years of 2020 and 2021 has completely ruined and destroy their career,” Jyrwa stated in the memo to the PM.
