Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) informed on Monday that it will now allow candidates to withdraw their applications, reports Indian Express. The withdrawal facility will be given for the candidates who have applied for the Engineering Services Exam 2019, the application process for which was started on September 26th and October 22nd is the last day to apply. This facility will be made available for more examinations in the future.

UPSC Chairman said that the facility will help save money for the Commission and reduce substantial amount of waste as only 50% of registered students appear for the exam. The Chairman said, “The commission has to book venues, print papers, hire invigilators and ship the documents for all the 10 lakh applicants – which turns out to be a 50 per cent waste of energy and resources”.

The candidates can first avail of this facility for the Engineering Services Exam 2019. Once the link gets activated for the withdrawal, candidates can give the application details which will generate an OTP on their registered mobile number and the email ID. The confirmation of application withdrawal message will be communicated via SMS and email.

The Commission will also be disclosing the marks and rankings of candidates who could not find themselves in the list of selected candidates. This will help other government agencies to choose candidates based on their UPSC scores. Non-successful candidates will also be linked to the National Career Service Portal run by Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The Chairman said, “Central Ministries and organizations can, conceivably take advantage of this arrangement wherein candidates who have cleared a rigorous screening process in the Civil Services, Engineering Services or Combined Medical Services Examinations, but could not find a place in the merit list due to constraints of vacancies, can now look forward to being picked up for other Government, public sector or private sector jobs, from the same database.”

The Chairman further informed that the Commission is moving more transactions online to reduce the stress on the candidates and further streamline the process. Mr. Saxena said, “We are also moving ahead with shifting from a pen and paper mode of examination to a computer-based mode. Apart from making the examination process more candidate-friendly, the new systems also serve to cut down the time cycle for each examination.”