Two more attempts for Civil Services aspirants this year

NEW DELHI: Civil Services aspirants will get two more additional attempts from this year onwards to write the prestigious exam but there will be no change in its format and syllabi, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said on Tuesday. "The aspirants should note that the government has decided to allow two additional attempts with consequential age relaxations to all categories of candidates with effect from Civil Service Examination, 2014. "There are no other changes in the format and syllabi of papers contained in the Civil Services Examination," the UPSC said in a short notice. A candidate is permitted a maximum of four attempts for the examination. However, there is no restriction on number of attempts by a candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). As many as seven attempts are permissible to an aspirant belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The Civil Service Examinations is conducted by the UPSC to select Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers among others. The examination is conducted in three stages — preliminary, mains and interview.The Civil Services Examination (Preliminary), 2014 is scheduled to be held on August 24, this year. A candidate who has attained the age of 21 years but not attained 30 years may apply for the Civil Services examination, as per eligibility mentioned in the notification. The upper age limit is relaxable up to a maximum of five years for candidates belonging to SCs or STs categories and up to a maximum of three years for candidates of OBC category among others. The upper age limit is also relaxable up to a maximum of five years if a candidate had ordinarily been domiciled in Jammu & Kashmir during January 1, 1980 to December 31, 1989. It can also be relaxed up to a maximum of three years in the case of defence services personnel disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area and released as a consequence thereof. There is also a relaxation in upper age up to a maximum of 10 years in the case of blind, deaf-mute and orthopaedically handicapped candidates. The detailed examination notice for this year's Civil Services examination will be published in Employment News or Rozgar Samachar on May 31, the UPSC said. PTI