UPSC: Many aspirants skip prelims in Madurai, Kovai

In Madurai, more than 60 per cent of the candidates skipped the examination. As many as 7,784 candidates had applied for it, though only 3,079 candidates appeared for it with 4,705 giving it a miss.

Meanwhile, of the 8,787 candidates who had applied for the UPSC civil services prelims, only 3,882 turned up for the exam in Coimbatore, while 4,905 candidates gave it a miss in the 20 centres in the district.

In the afternoon session, about 4,928 candidates didn’t turn up for the exam. “There used to be absentees, but more than half of the applicants staying away from the exam is shocking,” said an exam supervising official.

An exam supervisor at the Government Arts College in Coimbatore said many apply for such competitive exams following pressure from parents and family members.

“However, they do not prepare properly and skip the exam, as they know that writing it without preparation will serve no purpose,” he said.

Meanwhile, stringent checks were conducted by policemen at the centres to prevent any malpractice. The candidates were prevented from taking mobile phones and were allowed to use only analogue watches.

Also, jammers were installed in the centres to prevent the clandestine use of cellphones in the exam hall.

Arrangements were done to ensure uninterrupted power supply for the centres.

Special buses were operated from different places for the convenience of candidates.

Collector TN Hariharan inspected some exam centres.

The civil services exam is conducted once a year by the UPSC and it is held in three stages.

First is the preliminary exam in which only objective type questions will be asked.

Candidates who clear it would be selected for the main examination in which they will be asked to write answers for the questions given. The final stage is the interview or the personal test.