The birth of new Telangana State has not been noticed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), or it seems so, and aspirants of various UPSC exams are unable to provide the correct details in the online application form while applying to various posts.
The UPSC website for online submissions ‘upsconline.nic.in’ still shows only Andhra Pradesh in its list of States and Telangana residents are in a dilemma whether to choose Andhra Pradesh as their state, and if they choose will they end up with some problems in future for selecting the wrong State. They are more worried as the last date of a few exams will end this month.
For example, aspirants for Civil Services preliminary exam have to apply online by June 30 while those aspiring for National Defence Academy (NDA) and Naval Academy Examination need to apply before July 21. Apart from these, vacancies have also been announced in various departments like Information Service, Border Road Transport organisation, Power Department, Directorate of Health and Family Welfare among others.
An aspirant of Civil Services, Sriram says that the problem was brought to the notice of the UPSC officials through email and fax but so far Telangana state continues to miss from the States’list. Applicants have no other way of sending applications but only through online. “We cannot include the new state in the list in the soft copy unlike a hard copy.” The applications carry the complete details of the applicants including their personal, educational and residential address and are used for future reference.
After the formation of Telangana on June 2 this year, aspirants say, four notifications have been issued by the UPSC and the dilemma continues for all the aspirants. The ‘error’ may cost the aspirants as they fear that their applications may be rejected by the software in future once Telangana enters the list. Moreover, unsuccessful candidates may use the information to create legal hurdles for the selected candidates, aspirants argue.
