Bhubaneswar: The Odisha cabinet on Monday removed the cap on the number of attempts a candidate can make to clear the Odisha Civil Services (OCS) Examination, fulfilling a promise made by chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi in his Independence Day speech three months ago. It was six attempts for general category candidates, nine for socially and educationally backward class and unlimited for SCs and STs earlier.Chief secretary Anu Garg said candidates would now be able to take the examination any number of times as long as they meet the prescribed age and other eligibility criteria. The upper age limit for general category candidates is 42 years. The cabinet approved an amendment to the Odisha Civil Services (Combined Competitive Recruitment Examination) Rules, 1991, to remove the restriction on the number of attempts.Under the amended rules, eligible candidates can appear for the OCS examination without any limit on attempts until they cross the applicable upper age limit. The govt said the change was aimed at providing wider and fairer opportunities to aspirants for merit-based selection.