SHILLONG, Nov 24: The loss of valuable years which were perhaps last chances for some civil service aspirants due to the pandemic has anguished the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), compelling the organisation to move Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the matter.
In separate petitions submitted to the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister on Wednesday, NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa pointed out that lakhs of candidates, who had their last attempt in 2020 and 2021, are now ineligible to appear for the UPSC Civil Services Exam in 2022 either due to being age-barred or by virtue of exhaustion of their permissible number of attempts.
“Even those who attempted the paper also faced many hardships due to this pandemic. The candidates in essential and frontline services had to attend to rigorous COVID duty during the pandemic, and as a result they were unable to effectively attempt the paper,” Jyrwa said.
The NESO chairman said that the candidates from remote areas had to migrate back from their study centres to their native places and others belonging to economically weaker section had to bear the brunt of lockdown as many of them even lost their jobs.
He also pointed out that mental distress and an overall panic environment during that time, besides inappropriate reading material, closure of coaching centres and libraries are some of the consequences of the sufferings related to the pandemic.
“Similar condition existed for the candidates of 2021 as well. 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 family members and close ones, or their 2-3 months got completely wasted on account of time taken for post-COVID recovery,” Jyrwa said.
According to him, 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 two years — 2020 and 2021 — have completely ruined and destroyed their career,” he said.
In this context, NESO urged the central government to take a sympathetic call on this crucial issue by considering points- relaxation for pandemic-affected years.
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 organisation proposed.
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, it added.
“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. NESO is very confident that the Government of India will give due consideration that the matter deserves for the interest of the students of the country,” he added.