Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission has deferred the exam date of the Combined Competitive (Prelims) exam which was scheduled to be held on July 11, 2021. The Commission has released an official notice in this regard on the website jkpsc.nic.in indicating that the exam will now be conducted on October 24, 2021 instead of the earlier date.
Also known as KAS or Kashmir Administrative Service exam, the Commission us conducting the exam this year to fill up 187 vacancies in various services of the state government. The entire selection process consist of the Prelims exam at first, followed by the Main exam and thereby the final selection interviews. The Prelims were scheduled to be held in July 11, 2021 although now, the exam stands postponed and will be conducted on October 24, 2021 as per latest directives.
The notice undersigned by Deputy Commissioner of Exams, JKPSC, Vinay Samotra (KAS) has clarified that the exam has been postponed keeping in view the current state of COVID-19 pandemic in India. Although the Prelims exam is only qualifying in nature, all eligible applicants are mandatorily required to pass through it, in order to appear in the Main stage exam.
With the exam date rescheduled, candidates who have registered for the JKPSC KAS 2021 now have ample time to prepare for the exam. The procedure to apply online as well as editing of submitted online application form is already over. JKPSC conducted these procedures online for registration of eligible and interested candidates.
The KAS exam is being conducted in the state of Jammu & Kashmir for the first time since it was last conducted in 2017. However, the COVID-19 situation has pushed major state and central level government recruitment agencies to defer the exam date of various recruitment and selection events keeping in mind the health and safety of candidates and exam controlling personnel.
JKPSC published the official notification of the KAS 2021 exam in the last week of February 2021. Complete details of the recruitment exam are available online on the official website as well as in the official notification/information brochure released by the Commission. The prelims exam is conducted as an offline test of two papers based on General Studies. Each paper carries 200 marks while candidates are allowed only 02 hours’ time to complete the test for each paper. It may be noted that negative marking (-1/3) is applicable in the prelims.
Candidates have to qualify the Prelims by securing the minimum cut-offs in the exam. After the Prelims are over, based on merit in the exam, 1/3rd of the total number of candidates who qualify through the test or 25 times the total number of vacancies (whichever is lower) is shortlisted for subsequent selection stages.