Pune: The Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) has finally announced that the State Services Preliminary Examination will be held on September 13, 2020. It has also said that the Maharashtra Subordinate Service Non Gazetted Group B Combined Preliminary Examination will be held on October 11, 2020 and Maharashtra Engineering Services Preliminary Examination will be held on November 1, 2020.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had declared its examination schedule recently and students preparing for MPSC exams were waiting for the state commission to announce its exam dates. With MPSC declaring the dates of these exams, lakhs of students have now got relief and can start preparing for the exams.

In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, a nationwide lockdown was imposed in the month of March. As the lockdown got extended four times consecutively, MPSC had to postpone its examinations scheduled in April and May month. Postponement of examinations had left lakhs of competitive exam aspirants in the lurch. The state government on the other side had declared that the recruitments in the government sector will be stopped in order to curb the spends this year.

These developments had the fate of students hang in balance with no clarity on whether the exams will be held at all. MPSC officials were also tight-lipped about the exams, however experts had claimed that since the students had filled the application forms the commission will have to undertake exams sometime in near future.

Now, although the announcement of exams has provided much relief to the students, some other questions are being raised. How social distancing norms will be followed during the examinations remains to be seen. There is a speculation that MPSC would increase the number of exam centres but MPSC has not made its official stand clear. The commission has said that all these questions will be answered from time to time and students should only rely on the official communication. Students can check the portal www.mpsc.gov.in for more information, officials said.