MPSC prelims exam 2020 postponed to avoid clash with NEET UG exam; to be held on 20 Sept

The Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) has postponed the preliminary exam for state civil services by a week. The exam was earlier scheduled to be conducted on 13 September. It will now be held on 20 September. According to a report by Hindustan Times, the decision to postpone the exam has been taken as it was clashing with the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2020 examination. The MPSC prelims exam was initially scheduled to be conducted on 5 April, but it was later postponed to June. The exam was later deferred to 13 September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A report by The Times of India mentioned an MPSC official saying that since the NEET UG exam is being taken by lakhs of students in Maharashtra, the collector’s offices reported difficulties in managing the excess number of candidates. Availability of exam centres and invigilators for the exam was a problem as many of the NEET centres were also used for MPSC, the official said. “Since it was a state-level exam, we decided to postpone it,” the official added. A Jagran Josh report said that the MPSC exam will be conducted to fill 200 vacancies in various departments. Candidates who qualify the prelims examination will have to appear for the main examination which will be followed by interview round. The prelims exam will have two subjects - General Studies and Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT). The exam will be bilingual - Marathi and English and will comprise of multiple choice questions (MCQs). Each subject will be of 200 marks and there will be a negative marking for wrong answers.