11,573 BCS hopefuls get time to deposit fee

A new timeframe was provided for the 11,573 applicants who failed to deposit the fee for the 33rd Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) exam but received a personal identification number (PIN) after completing the online application.
The fee of Tk 500 should be paid from prepaid connections of Teletalk between 8:00am of April 29 and 10:00pm of May 2.
Public Service Commission (PSC) took the decision yesterday at a special meeting at its office in the capital in line with a High Court order, said AYM Nesar Uddin, PSC controller of examinations (cadre).
“The applicants who received a PIN after applying online will be allowed to take part in the exam as per the court's directive,” he told The Daily Star.
The applicants had failed to deposit the fee due to shortcomings of Teletalk's servers even after completing the online application by the April 7 midnight deadline.
PSC refused to consider their application and did not issue the admit cards, forcing 20 applicants to file a writ petition with the High Court.
On April 16, the HC stayed the process for holding the exam for three weeks.
Nesar said Teletalk had already sent text messages to applicants, requesting to pay the fees within the new timeframe.
PSC, for the first time, launched the online registration process for BCS exam this year to ease the appointment process. The preliminary examination is scheduled to be held on June 1.
The 33rd BCS aims at filling up 4,206 vacant government posts, comprising 2,905 professional and technical cadres, 582 general cadres and 719 education cadres (607 in general colleges and 112 in teacher training colleges).