No mobile phones, gadgets during civil services preliminary exams: UPSC

Commision warns infringements of instructions shall entail disciplinary action including ban from future examinations

Candidates appearing for civil services preliminary examination have been asked by the UPSC not to bring mobile phones, IT gadgets and valuable items with them.

"Mobile phones, calculators, IT gadgets and any other communication device such as bluetooth etc. are not allowed inside the premises where the examination is being conducted. Any infringements of these instructions shall entail disciplinary action including ban from future examinations," the Union Public Service Commission has said.

Candidates are advised not to bring any valuables or costly items and bags to the examination halls, as safe keeping of the same cannot be assured. The Commission will not be responsible for any loss in this regard, it said.

The civil services examination is conducted by the UPSC annually in three stages--preliminary, main and interview --to select candidates for prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

The civil services preliminary exam, 2015 is scheduled to be held on August 23.

It will be held in two sessions and each session will have two hours plus twenty minutes per hour (total forty minutes) extra time for visually impaired candidates (visual impairment 40 per cent or more) and the candidates with locomotor disability with cerebral palsy (suffering from dominant writing) extremity with minimum 40 per cent impairment only.

"Such candidates will accordingly be allowed two hours and forty minutes to answer in each session," it said.

The physically handicapped candidates, who have been permitted by the Commission to bring their own scribe to write the exam, will be allowed to avail the assistance of such scribe only if he or she carries a valid admit card duly issued by the Commission for such purpose, the UPSC said.

The physically handicapped candidates, who have been permitted by the Commission to bring their own scribe to write the exam, will not be allowed to change them subsequently, it said.