44% aspirants appear for UPSC prelims in Ranchi; happy with Covid arrangements

Ranchi: Amid fears of Covid-19, around 44% of the total candidates appeared for the prelims of the civil services examinations conducted around 61 centres of Ranchi on Sunday.
A total of 27,095 civil services aspirants vying for various services from the state were supposed to take the examination of which 12,400 aspirants from Jharkhan, Bihar and West Bengal appeared for the examination on Sunday.
“The normal turnout is around 50% and 44% attendance amid the pandemic is a good response,” said Moinuddin Khan, an official with the South Chhotanagpur commission.
The examination was conducted in two shifts for two papers which included general studies between 9.30am and 1130am and the second from 2.30pm to 4.30pm which contained questions on quantitative aptitude, reasoning and comprehension.
As per UPSC guidelines to conduct the examination in a sanitized environment and to maintain social distancing, thermal scanning of every candidate was done at all centres and candidates were made to sit on alternate benches to maintain social distancing. Sanitizers were made available to students at regular intervals at the examination centres.
The district administration also made elaborate arrangements at all the centres for the examinations and ensured queue management outside as well as inside the centres in order to ensure social distancing at all times and to maintain law and order.
“We are satisfied with the way the examination was conducted. A total of 61 magistrates were on duty across the city. The magistrates ensured all safety norms were adhered to, including thermal scanning and sanitization of candidates. Masks were made available to students if anyone hadn’t turned up with one,” said Ranchi ADM (law and order) Lokesh Mishra.
The district administration had also put medical teams on standby at six police stations to meet any kind of medical emergency. “We had kept one medical team each along with ambulances at Bariatu, Sukhdevnagar, Chutia, Dhurwa, Kotwali and Argora on standby to cater to any medical emergency due to the viral worry, but everything went smooth,” Mishra said.
TOI spoke to a few aspirants who said they were very happy with the arrangements. On being asked about the paper, most of the aspirants said paper one was slightly difficult in comparison to the second one.
“There were too many questions on agriculture, economy and environment in the first paper in comparison to questions on art and culture, government schemes constitutional bodies, education and security. The paper was a bit tough, but then it was balanced,” said Avinash Kumar who came from Koderma to write the examination.
Swati Choubey, another aspirant said, “The first paper was a bit tricky, but then it wasn’t something which we hadn’t expected. The second paper was average and I didn’t find it difficult.”
Several candidates had travelled from far off districts like Palamu, Garhwa, Godda, Giridih and a few districts of Bihar in private as well as public transports
Anand Singh, who had come from Aurangabad in Bihar, said, “The examination was already postponed twice so there is no point cancelling it as Covid-19 has become a part of life and all we can do is protect ourselves from getting infected.
The number of vacancies notified this year is 796, that is 100 candidates less than the 896 vacancies last year.