The Central Government has on Tuesday urged the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to consider postponing the preliminary examination pending “clarity” over the syllabus and its pattern.
This was following the demands by Civil Services aspirants to scrap the Civil Services Aptitude Tests (CSAT). The examination is scheduled to be conducted on August 24.
Union Minister of State of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh appealed to the aggrieved students to end their indefinite fast.
“The government is sympathetically looking at their concerns and is awaiting the report of a three-member committee set up under the chairmanship of Arvind Varma to look into this issue,” he said.
Dr. Singh also held a meeting with student representatives and conveyed to them that the government was “making every effort to address their grievances in a judicious manner.” The Union Minister also said the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has advised the committee members, conveying the urgency of the matter, to furnish the report without delay.
“Regarding the other demands of the students related to the pattern and the examination dates, the government will take a view after receiving the opinion of the UPSC as well of as that of the committee,” he added. The present pattern was introduced in 2011.
Demanding that the CSAT be done away with, the aspirants have been holding protests for the past several weeks. While the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad supporters also lodged a protest on Monday alleging that the pattern was discriminatory towards Hindi language aspirants, another group met the Union Minister seeking his intervention.
The aggrieved students, who have been subject to lathi-charge and tear gas shells in the past for protesting, were not yet ready to give up their hunger strike unless a written assurance is their hands.
“Two of our friends Nilofpal Mrinal and Pawan Kumar will continue to sit on hunger strike unless we have a written assurance from the government that our issues will be addressed,” said Vivek Kumar who has been involved in protesting against the syllabus change since the beginning.
Another protester Abhishek Mall said, “The changes in the preliminary exams and the mains were discriminatory towards students from Humanities and those who are coming from non-English and rural backgrounds. In simple terms, something that I take three months’ learning will take a person who has studied engineering just one day to ace. The difference is that much.”
The issue has also been raised during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha.
