Bhubaneswar: Civil service aspirants have questioned the vacant posts advertised by Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) recently, alleging the reservations violate the govt’s rules of providing 50% of seats to the unreserved category.
OPSC will conduct the Odisha Civil Services Examination-2024 to select eligible candidates for 200 govt posts. Out of these 200 posts, only 70 have been allotted to the unreserved category, which is 35% of the total vacancies. As many as 130 seats have been reserved for categories like SC, ST and SEBC.
Sunil Kumar Mishra, a civil service aspirant, said that reservation should not exceed 50% of the total vacancies in recruitment. “If 65% of the seats are reserved, it will not create a level playing field for the general category candidates,” he added.
A group of aspirants, including Mishra, went to the chief minister’s grievance cell on Monday and submitted a memorandum on the matter. “We also want the govt to increase the posts so that more aspirants can enter govt service. In the recent OCS-2024 advertisement, no post has been allocated for OPS cadre 1,” he added.
Official sources said 30 extra posts beyond the 50% reservation limit were backlog vacancies. Satyabrata Ray from OPSC said the general administration department can address the grievance of the aspirants. “Only the govt can answer whether the increased posts for the reserved category were backlog vacancies from previous years,” he added.
Additional chief secretary (general administration) Surendra Kumar could not be contacted for a comment on the matter.