Case delays 34th BCS written tests

Non disposal of a case has kept the 34th BCS written tests hanging for seven months, raising ire of those qualified for the tests and also of those who are expecting to qualify for the next BCS.

Irked job seekers say it is not acceptable that age limit for entering government services has not been increased even though retirement age has been enhanced.

Due to this delay, the Public Service Commission cannot issue any advertisement on the next BCS recruitment, they are of the view.

The Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the written tests soon.

Preliminary test results of the 34th BCS were announced on quota basis on July 8 last year wherein 12033 applicants qualified for the written tests.

Despite getting enough marks, many failed to qualify because of the quota system. They began agitating on July 10 demanding reformation of the quota system.

General students also joined the movement spontaneously, forcing the Public Service Commission to review the results on July 14.

According to the reviewed results, 46250 students qualified for the written exams.

The Public Service Commission claimed that names of all the students who had been qualified for the first time were kept in the revised list.

But it later transpired that 281 tribal students got dropped from the revised results though they had earlier qualified for the written tests.

The dropped tribal students wrote to the Public Service Commission and the Ministry of Public Administration to look into their issue.

They also observed various programmes demanding their names be included in the revised list.

As no decision was taken about them, barrister Jotirmoy Barua, representing 59 tribal students, filed a writ petition with the High Court on July 28.

The petition asked the court to issue a ruling as to why the revised results that dropped 281 tribal students should not be declared illegal.

A High Court bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Zafar Ahmed issued such a ruling on July 31. It also wanted to know why the tribal students were dropped from the reviewed results.

The written exams schedule could not be announced as the petition was yet to be resolved, said AIM Nesaruddin, Controller (cadre) of the Public Service Commission, speaking to bdnews24.com.

Indicating that court holidays might have delayed the hearing of the petition, he said, “Our reply is already with the court.”

Though he could not say when the petition might be heard, he hoped the schedule for the written exams could be announced soon.

Public Service Commission officials said the Commission wrote to the court on Sept 29 against the court ruling on the writ petition.

But the court did not issue any directive on this and so they wrote to it again on Oct 28.

The written tests of the 33rd BCS were held 67 days after the preliminary results were out.

In cases of other BCS, it took two to three months for the written tests to be held.

The revised results were published by increasing the previously set cut off mark by five-percent for tribal quota and for that 251 others also got dropped, said a member of the Commission, preferring anonymity.

Had the previous minimum cut-off mark been maintained, 80027 applicants would have qualified for the written tests, which would have been unrealistic considering there was only 2052 posts, he said.

A BCS candidate, Rafiqul, who qualified for the written tests expressed dismay over the delay in announcing the schedule for the written tests even after the lapse of seven months.

“If there is any case with the PSC, that should not affect us. It is their matter. Why should we bother about that. We want to quickly sit for the exams,” he said, speaking to bdnews24.com.

Another job seeker, Rabiul Islam, was upset that there was no advertisement for the new BCS recruitment in Jan this year.

He said he has crossed the age limit to qualify for a government job on Jan 20, he told bdnews24.com.

The government had on Dec 19 increased the retirement age of the government officials and employees by two years. It has been effective from Dec 26.

The government has no plan to increase the age limit for entering government service, Abdus Sobhan Sikder, Secretary at the Ministry of Public Administration, told bdnews24.com recently.

When contacted, Public Service Commission Chairman Ikram Ahmed, however, declined to make any comment on the issue.

A total of 1149 posts have been approved for the 35th BCS. Soon a circular would be issued in this regard, Sikder told bdnews24.com on Thursday.