Pune: Maharashtra Public Service Commission ( MPSC ) aspirants are on a protest on Shastri Road in the city since Tuesday as the dates of their preliminary examination and banking service exam coincide on Aug 25. They are also upset with non-inclusion of agriculture posts in the MPSC prelim exam and delay in announcement of the exam schedule for non-gazetted posts at various govt departments. The Maharashtra Gazetted Civil Services Combined Preliminary Examination, 2024, conducted by MPSC is scheduled for Aug 25.
The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection ( IBPS ) clerical staff 2024 exam is also scheduled for the same date. Mahesh Gharbude, a student preparing for the preliminary exam, said, "Many of us have applied for the banking and civil services exams. We now face a dilemma over which one to appear for.
Since IBPS announced their dates first, its fair that MPSC reschedules theirs. They've already postponed the exams twice before. They should have ensured that the dates didn't clash this time with major exams, like that of banking services.
" Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had earier in the day tweeted that the date of the IBPS exam and MPSC joint prelim exam coincided on Aug 25, while 258 seats of agriculture department were not included in state service pre-exam. He said, "Due to both these reasons, there is dissatisfaction among the students, so I requested the Chairman of Maharashtra Public Service Commission to take a positive decision in this regard. He assured me that a meeting will be held at 3pm and it will definitely be considered.
" Besides, the aspirants from the agriculture streams are miffed at the fact that despite a govt resolution (GR), the Group A, B, and Group B (junior cadre) posts in the Maharashtra Agriculture Services are not part of the impending prelim exam. The exam will have to be conducted separately on a later date. They said 258 agriculture posts were to be filled through the MPSC prelim exam.
In a tweet on Wednesday afternoon, MPSC said, "According to the demand letters for the posts of Group A, B and Group B (Junior) cadre in Maharashtra Agricultural Service, it is informed that the advertisement for the given cadre will be published in the next 2-3 days. Also, the preliminary examination for the cadre in this service will be conducted till the end of Oct 2024." Later in the evening, MPSC tweeted that a meeting of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission will be held on Thursday at 10.
00am. Despite repeated attempts to contact the MPSC secretary for clarification on if they were considering postponing the exam, no response was received. Congress's Kasba Peth MLA Ravindra Dangekar and Karjat Jamkhed MLA Rohit Pawar (NCP-SCP) visited the protesting candidates on Wednesday evening and announced their support to their demands.
Pawar said he would participate in the protest by sitting with the aggrieved candidates till the MPSC released a notification postponing the examination and including the agriculture services posts in the combined exam. The MPSC had on Tuesday said the agriculture posts were dropped from the Aug 25 prelim exam as a demand letter for the Maharashtra Agricultural Service Examination 2024 was not received from govt until the advertisement for State Services examination was published on Dec 29, 2023. It was not possible to include the agriculture posts in the advertisement; and that the dates for the same will be announced soon, the commission stated.
Raviraj Kamble, a graduate in agriculture, said the GR issued a year ago mandated a combined preliminary exam for all gazetted posts, including engineering, forest, and agriculture services, and said this directive should be honoured. "Why should our exams be held separately from other services? Students are already calling for the exam to be postponed. The most logical step is to delay it, include us in the new notification, allow time for applications, and then conduct the exam," said Kamble.
The MPSC in its notification on Tuesday said it had received the demand letter for 258 posts in the Maharashtra Agricultural Service Group-A and Group-B cadre on Aug 16, 2024, from the govt. The notification said, "Maharashtra Gazetted Civil Services Combined Preliminary Examination - 2024 is being conducted on Aug 25, 2024 and all the preliminary preparations related to the present examination have been completed. Since it is not possible to include the posts in the Agricultural Service in the present examination, further planning will be done as soon as possible regarding the recruitment process for the posts received in the application form of the Maharashtra Agricultural Service.
" Akshay Jain, president of Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress's media and communication department who is also participating in the protest, said instead of making random announcements on social media, the deputy chief minister and MPSC should take concrete steps..
