MPSC exams to be held as per the schedule on Sunday, says Chavan

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, today said that the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exams would be held April 7 as scheduled across the state. He neglected the demands for postponing the exams after the MPSC's main server crashed because of a virus attack and it wiped out data of all 300,000-plus candidates when hardly 4 days before the exams. Mr. Chavan told the state assembly that:

"All candidates would be informed about their exam centre details via SMS. They can produce their exam fee receipt with a photograph to write the exams. There will be no compulsion on the hall ticket,".

Earlier in the day, the MPSC came under fire from political parties for "carelessness" due to which it lost valuable computerised data of the candidates. Legislators cutting across party lines demanded that MPSC should postpone the examinations by at least a fortnight to enable aspirants complete relevant formalities like submitting fresh data, getting hall tickets, allotment of exam centres and write their exams. The MPSC has directed all students to resubmit the data by Thursday evening on www.mpsconline.gov.in, after which it will issue hall tickets on Friday. MPSC Chairman Mr. Sudhir Thakre told that there is no problem in holding the exam as per the schedule. Political leaders of Nationalist Congress Party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Republican Party of India and NGO's demonstrated outside the MPSC office in south Mumbai in support to the candidates. A number of questions were also raised about the MPSC failure to maintain a backup of the data by them. MPSC chairman Sudhir Thakre said,

"We are still trying to install a new system and also trying to find alternatives for the new registration process. At present, we have just alerted students through the notification that they would have to register all over again."

The MPSC preliminary exam will be held for two papers — general studies and civil services aptitude test, with negative marking for wrong answers. The MPSC is a constitutional body created for the recruitment of class I, II and III officers and employees in various departments of the state government. These exams are conducted by UPSC. Its mandate includes advertising for jobs, conducting competitive examinations for the same, declaring results and conducting personal interviews of successful candidates to shortlist and recommend jobs for them to the state government. MPSC exam date is April 7.
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