OSSSC CRE 2026 Notification: Eligibility, Selection Process & Online Application for 1518 Posts
The Odisha Subordinate Staff Selection Commission (OSSSC) has released the official notification for the Combined Recruitment Examination (CRE) 2026. This recruitment drive aims to fill 1,518 vacancies for the posts of Forester, Forest Guard, and Excise Constable.
Eligible candidates who have completed their 10th or 12th grade can submit their applications online through the official portal starting from January 7, 2026.
OSSSC Recruitment 2026: 1,518 Forest Guard, Forester & Constable Vacancies – Full Details
Available Vacancies
- A total of 1,518 posts are available across three major categories:
- Forest Guard: 896 Posts
- Excise Constable: 575 Posts
- Forester: 47 Posts
Salary and Pay Scale
- Forester: Monthly Pay Scale of ₹25,500 – ₹81,100 (Pay Matrix Level-7, Cell-1).
- Forest Guard: Monthly Pay Scale of ₹19,900 – ₹63,200 (Pay Matrix Level-4, Cell-01).
- Excise Constable: Monthly Pay Scale of ₹19,900 – ₹63,200 (Pay Matrix Level-4, Cello).
Educational Qualifications
Candidates must meet the post-wise minimum educational qualifications as prescribed in the Detailed Advertisement for CRE-2025 (II). Generally, this ranges from 10th (Matriculation) to 12th (Intermediate) depending on the specific post.
Age Requirement
Applicants must be between 18/21 to 32 years of age as of January 1, 2025. Note that age relaxations for SC, ST, SEBC, and Women candidates will be applicable as per government norms.
Important Dates
- Application Start Date: January 7, 2026
- Application Deadline: February 7, 2026 (Final date for online submission)
OSSSC CRE 2026 Vacancy Breakdown: Post-wise Distribution of 1,518 Jobs
1. Angul District
- Total Vacancies: 21
- UR (Women): 7 (3)
- ST (Women): 2 (1)
- SC (Women): 3 (1)
- SEBC (Women): 3 (1)
- Ex-Servicemen (Included): 1
2. Balangir District
- Total Vacancies: 23
- UR (Women): 6 (3)
- ST (Women): 5 (3)
- SC (Women): 2 (1)
- SEBC (Women): 2 (1)
- Ex-Servicemen (Included): 1
3. Balasore District
- Total Vacancies: 38
- UR (Women): 14 (7)
- ST (Women): 5 (3)
- SC (Women): 5 (3)
- SEBC (Women): 1 (0)
- Ex-Servicemen (Included): 1
4. Bargarh District
- Total Vacancies: 7
- UR (Women): 0 (0)
- ST (Women): 2 (1)
- SC (Women): 2 (1)
- SEBC (Women): 1 (0)
- Ex-Servicemen (Included): 0
5. Bhadrak District
- Total Vacancies: 16
- UR (Women): 5 (3)
- ST (Women): 3 (1)
- SC (Women): 1 (1)
- SEBC (Women): 1 (1)
- Ex-Servicemen (Included): 0
OSSSC Recruitment 2026:Eligibility Criteria
To apply for the Forester, Forest Guard, or Excise Constable positions, candidates must meet the specific educational and age requirements as of January 1, 2025.
1. Post-Wise Educational Qualification & Age Limit
- Forester
- Education: Must have passed +2 Science (Intermediate) from a recognized Board or University.
- Skills: Basic knowledge of Computer Skills is mandatory.
- Age Limit: 18 to 32 years.
- Forest Guard
- Education: Must have passed High School Certificate Examination (10th) from a recognized Board.
- Age Limit: 18 to 32 years.
- Excise Constable
- Education: Must have passed +2 Examination (Arts/Science/Commerce) or equivalent from CHSE Odisha or any recognized Board.
- Age Limit: 21 to 32 years.
2. Mandatory Odia Language Proficiency
- All candidates must be able to read, write, and speak Odia fluently. Additionally, they must satisfy one of the following:
- Passed Middle English School Exam with Odia as a language subject.
- Passed Matriculation/HSC with Odia as the medium of examination in non-language subjects.
- Passed Odia as a language subject in Class VII or above.
- Passed the Odia test (M.E. School Standard) conducted by the School & Mass Education Department, Odisha.
3. Physical & Medical Standards (Important)
- For Excise Constable: Candidates must be in excellent health. You are ineligible if you have:
- Knock knees, bow legs, flat feet, or varicose veins.
- Squint eyes, poor vision, or color blindness.
- Inability to flex fingers or speech/hearing impediments.
- For Forester/Forest Guard: Generally, Persons with Disabilities (PwD) are not eligible, except for Leprosy Cured Persons and Acid Attack Victims under specific reservations.
4. Category-Specific Requirements
- Sportspersons: Must possess and upload a valid Sportsperson Identity Card issued by the Sports & Youth Services Department, Odisha.
- PwD Candidates: Must have a Permanent Disability Certificate/UDID card (minimum 40% disability). Eligible PwD candidates get 20 minutes per hour extra time during the written test.
- Ex-Servicemen: Must provide a Discharge Certificate/ID and an undertaking that they have not previously availed of Odisha Government re-employment benefits.
5. General Conditions
- Must be a Citizen of India.
- Must be of good moral character.
- Marital Status: If married, the candidate must not have more than one spouse living (unless exempted by personal law).
Age Limit (as on 01-01-2025)
- Forester: Minimum 18 years and maximum 32 years.
- Forest Guard: Age within 18–32 years as specified for the post; age reckoned as on 1st January, 2025.
- Excise Constable: Must have attained age of 21 years and must not be above 32 years as on 1st January, 2025.
- SC/ST/SEBC/Women: Upper age relaxable by 5 years.
- Persons with Disabilities (PwDs): Upper age relaxable by 10 years.
- Ex-Servicemen: Upper age relaxable by total period of defence service rendered, subject to not having more than six months of service remaining on last date of online application and conditions related to prior re-employment.
- A candidate coming under more than one category is eligible for only one relaxation, which is most beneficial, except PwDs under SC/ST/SEBC who are entitled to cumulative 10 years relaxation over normal category relaxation as per Odisha Civil Service (Fixation of Upper Age Limit) Rules, 1989.
Application Fee
- As per Odisha Payment of Recruitment Examination Fees and Refund Rules, 2025.
- Candidates other than Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) shall pay Examination Fee of ₹ 500/- using Net Banking / Credit Card / Debit Card / UPI through Payment Gateway during online application.
- SC, ST and PwDs candidates are exempted from payment of Examination Fee.
- Examination Fee of ₹ 500/- paid shall be refunded to applicants who actually appear for the examination after conduct of examination and verification of attendance records.
- Refund shall be credited to the bank account or payment method used at the time of registration; applicants are advised to use their own account to avoid inconvenience.
- No refund shall be admissible to applicants who fail to appear in the examination for any reason whatsoever.
- If Confirmation Page is not generated after payment, the transaction will be cancelled and amount refunded within 48 hours; applicants then need to make another payment/transaction to complete the application.
OSSSC CRE 2026: Important Dates & Deadlines
To ensure your application is successful, please keep track of the following timeline. Note that there are two separate deadlines: one for registration and one for the final submission of the application.
- Registration Start Date (New & Existing Users): January 7, 2026
- Registration/Re-registration Deadline: January 31, 2026
- This is the last day to create a new profile or update an existing one on the OSSSC portal.
- Submission of Online Application (Start): January 7, 2026
- Final Deadline for Application Submission: February 7, 2026
- After registering, you must complete and submit the actual application form by this date.
OSSSC CRE 2026: selection process
- Stage-I: Written Test – 100 marks, MCQ type in OMR/CBRE mode, of minimum standard of High School Certificate Examination.
- Written Test pattern: Mathematics (20 questions, 20 marks), General Studies (25 questions, 25 marks), English (20 questions, 20 marks), Odia (15 questions, 15 marks), Computer (20 questions, 20 marks); duration 1½ hours.
- Negative marking: One-fourth (0.25) of marks for each question deducted for every wrong answer; more than one option marked is treated as wrong; no penalty for unattempted questions.
- Minimum qualifying marks (Written): 30% for ST, SC, PwD, Ex-Servicemen and Sportsperson categories; 35% for all other candidates.
- Questions and answer options of all segments will be bilingual (except English and Odia language subjects); in case of any confusion in Odia version, English version shall prevail.
- In CBRE mode, examination may be held on multiple dates/shifts using multiple question sets; normalization formula will be adopted to convert raw scores into normalized scores.
- Candidates may select maximum three preferred districts for test centre; Commission may allot another district depending on infrastructure / capacity.
- For Excise Constable, bonus marks are awarded to candidates possessing NCC certificates: NCC ‘B’ Certificate – 01 mark; NCC ‘C’ Certificate – 02 marks.
- Stage-II: Physical Test – Physical Standard Measurement (PSM) and Physical Efficiency Test (PET) for all three posts; number of candidates shortlisted for Physical Test shall not be less than 3 times the number of vacancies, category-wise, subject to Commission’s discretion.
- Physical Standard Measurement – Forester/Forest Guard: Minimum Height and Chest as prescribed by category and gender (e.g., Men UR/SEBC/SC: 168 cm height, chest 81 cm unexpanded with up to 5 cm expansion; Men ST: 158 cm height; Women UR/SEBC/SC/ST: 153 cm height). Color blindness is disqualification.
- Physical Standard Measurement – Excise Constable: Category-wise minimum Height, Weight and Chest (e.g., Men UR/SEBC: 168 cm height, 55 kg weight, chest 79–84 cm; Men SC/ST: 163 cm, 50 kg, 76–81 cm; Women UR/SEBC: 158 cm, 47.5 kg; Women SC/ST: 153 cm, 45 kg). Minimum 5 cm difference between unexpanded and expanded chest.
- Physical Efficiency Test – Forester/Forest Guard: Male (all categories): Walking Test 25 km in 4 hours; Female (all categories): Walking Test 16 km in 4 hours.
- Physical Efficiency Test – Excise Constable: Male: Running 1.6 km in 7 minutes and Long Jump 3.66 m in 3 attempts; Female: Running 1.6 km in 9 minutes and Long Jump 2.75 m in 3 attempts.
- Failure to qualify in any PSM/PET event leads to disqualification from recruitment for the concerned post.
- Merit Lists & Further Stages: Provisional Master Merit List of Written Test; Provisional Screening List for Physical Test; Provisional Merit List of Physical Test; Screening List for Document Verification; Document Verification by District Level Board; Counselling for post and district/circle/division choice; Post-wise, District/Circle/Division-wise Provisional Select Lists based on merit-cum-choice and availability.
- OSSSC reserves the right to conduct additional/re-test for Written/Physical Test, reschedule tests, cancel part or whole of recruitment, and decide all matters of eligibility, selection and debarment
HOW TO APPLY OSSSC CRE 2026 :
- Visit OSSSC website www.osssc.gov.in and refer to “How do I register/re-register/apply” on the Home page for step-by-step procedure.
- Registration (New User): Fresh candidates who have not registered earlier for any OSSSC recruitment must register by clicking “Apply Online” on the Home page and filling the Registration Form.
- Re-registration (Registered User): Candidates already registered for any other OSSSC post with a User ID must login and select the “Re-registration” option under the Applicant Menu for this recruitment.
- Mere Registration / Re-registration does not constitute submission of Online Application; candidates must login again, furnish all required data and submit the Online Application Form as guided by the system.
- Incomplete applications shall be summarily rejected; no Admission Letter will be issued to candidates with incomplete applications or who do not fulfil eligibility criteria.
- Pre-requisites: Payment of ₹ 500/- Examination Fee (for non-SC/ST/PwDs); scanned full specimen signature in jpg/jpeg/png (20–50 KB); scanned recent passport size colour photograph in jpg/jpeg/png (20–100 KB); certificates and mark sheets for entering educational details.
- Photograph and signature must be clearly identifiable/visible; otherwise Registration / Application is liable to rejection.
- Applicants must use their own valid personal e-mail ID and mobile number with validity till completion of recruitment for receiving Activation Key, alerts and Admission Letters; they should not share/change these details.
- Submit Online Application well before the last date to avoid last-hour rush in the online application system.
OSSSC CRE 2026: Important Links
- Apply Online: Click here
- Notification PDF: Click here
- Official Website: Click here
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