Government promises to resolve UPSC row, protests continue

New Delhi, Aug 1:

The government Friday once again said a solution will be found to the civil service entrance examination row, even as protests continued over the issue inside and outside parliament.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office Jitendra Singh said that the committee looking into the issue has given its report and a final decision will be taken soon.

“Now that the report has come, the government will plan and act accordingly. I want to assure that the decision will be well thought out and a balanced one,” he said.

“I also want to request the students that they do not need to unnecessarily stress themselves, physically and mentally,” he added.

Singh added that consultations will be held with all those concerned and a decision will be taken “at the earliest”.

The issue rocked the Rajya Sabha Friday with opposition members accusing the government of not taking concrete steps despite an assurance given on the floor of the house.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh made a statement promising a solution.

“The government would find out an appropriate solution to the problem of language issue in UPSC examination at the earliest,” he told members of the upper house.

“The government has taken a serious note of the agitation by the students. We have received the report of the committee which was looking into it, and we are studying the way out,” he said in response to the concerns expressed by several opposition members, who demanded an immediate reply from the government on the action being taken.

Dissatisfied with the minister’s reply, members from the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Left parties staged a walkout.

Earlier, the upper house saw three adjournments over the issue.

As soon as the upper house met for the day, opposition members were on their feet demanding a response from the government.

Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal-United said the government had given an assurance that it would resolve the issue which involves the fate of seven lakh students within seven days, but nothing has been done so far.

He said he has submitted a privilege notice.

Pramod Tiwari of the Congress said aspirants for the exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission were agitating, but instead of resolving the issue, they were being caned.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu’s request to take up the issue after question hour was not heeded and the house saw two adjournments before noon.

When the house reassembled, another 15-minute adjournment was witnessed due to opposition protests.

UPSC aspirants meanwhile continued their protest at Jantar Mantar, hardly a kilometer away from parliament building.

One of the protesters, Rajbir Chauhan told IANS that they will continue their protest till the government fulfils their demands.

“UPSC is discriminating with the students who are pursuing exam in different Indian languages… students are not able to understand the exams because translation is not accurate,” he said.

The UPSC protest had turned violent Wednesday night when the police stopped around 500 aspirants from holding a candle march in Mukherjee Nagar and Timarpur areas of north Delhi. The aspirants burnt two buses, a police van and a police booth.

The CSAT-II paper carries questions on comprehension, interpersonal skills including communication skills, logical reasoning and analytical ability, decision-making and problem- solving, general mental ability, basic numeracy, and English language comprehension skills (of Class 10 level). It is being opposed as discriminatory against those from the humanities and Hindi background.

(IANS)