West Bengal Public Service Commission (WBPSC) has released the much awaited West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) 2020 notification. Against it, application form will be available from tomorrow that is November 5, 2019. Preliminary exam will be held on February 9, 2020.
The commission has not disclosed vacancies in the notification. However the names of services or posts and their pay scales have been outlined. There are different posts and services in group A, B, C, D. Group A and B services are in pay band 4A. Group C ones are in pay band 4. And the group D ones are in pay band 3.
There will be a preliminary exam, then a mains, and then personality test. WBPSC has identified 20 cities to be the test centres for the civil services preliminary exam. They are namely Kolkata (North), Kolkata (South), Baruipur, Diamond Harbour, Barrackpore, Barasat, Howrah, Burdwan, Asansol, Medinipur, Tamluk, Bankura, Berhampore, Malda, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Siliguri, Kalimpong, Darjeeling.
Prelims will comprise of eight sections of 25 marks each. They will be english composition, general science, current events of national & international importance, history of india, geography of india with special reference to west bengal, indian polity and economy, indian national movement, general mental ability.
WBPSC invites graduates with the ability to read, write, speak in Bengali, and sufficing the age limit to apply. The age limit, upper is 21 to 36 years of age for group A and C. For WB Police Service group B, it is 20 to 36 years. Group D posts require age to be between 21 to 39 years. Date to calculate age is January 1, 2020.
SC, ST candidates get a relaxation of 5 years, and BC get for 4 years. WBCS 2020 also has certain physical measurement requirements, however they are only for certain posts.
The application form for WBCS 2020 shall open tomorrow. And then, candidates will be able to apply online at pscwbonline.gov.in. The application fee for all posts is Rs 210, plus service charge. SC, ST, PWD of the state are exempt from any fee. The last date to apply online, and pay fee online will be November 25, 2019. Whereas the deadline to pay fee offline shall be November 26, 2019. That being said, the challan should be generated by November 25, 2019 only.
To go through the complete notification, which is highly recommended before applying, one has to go to pscwbonline.gov.in (note that the site automatically redirects to pscwbapplication.in). Then click on the link “detailed advertisement, scheme and syllabus of west bengal civil service (executive) etc. examination, 2020 (advt. no. 22/2019)”.
The last WBCS exam was held in 2018-2019. Its prelims was held on May 14, and mains from July 25 to 28. In that exam, the prelims cut off (marks out of 200) stood at 105.13 for general, 101.05 for BC-A, 101.06 for BC-B, 96.18 for SC, 73.13 for ST.
Candidates can compete for one or more groups, however, a single application is to be submitted with choice of groups.