8 visually challenged candidates clear Odisha civil service exam

EIGHT Visually-challenged candidates have cleared Odisha civil service examination for the first time, five years after the high court had allowed them to take the test.

Sannyas Behera, who got a clause barring visually-challenged candidates from taking the exam dropped, secured the highest — 220th rank — among the eight. “The result is a morale booster for thousands of visually-challenged students... It is a big day not just for me but for all visually-challenged students.’’

People with disabilities have 3 per cent reservation in Union Public Service Commission examinations. But the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) did not have any such norm until 2015. The court allowed people with disabilities to appear for the examination in 2014 after Behera challenged the exclusion in 2011.

In July 2015, OPSC issued an advertisement for the examination without any reservation for people with disabilities. Behera and his friends had the advertisement amended a month later. Behera said that though he was not very confident, several people and organisations helped. “In the examination hall, I was given a scribe to write the exam and a special invigilator was appointed to check whether the answers that I was dictating were actually being written,” said Behera, who is 42 — the upper age limit to clear the exam.

Another candidate Sukanti Dash, who secured the 552 rank, said that the results would encourage more people with disabilities. “We can work better than able-bodied people if given a chance,” he said.

MUMBAI