UPSC protest continues in Delhi

About 60 UPSC aspirants continued their protest against the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) at the Jantar Mantar here, police said Wednesday.

The aspirants, who are demanding scrapping of the CSAT and deferment of the Aug 24 examination date, Wednesday remained seated at the protest site, located in the heart of the city, for the third consecutive day. The Jantar Mantar protest began Monday evening.

"The protest is peaceful. At night, only 15-20 protesters were sitting at the site, but the numbers went up to 60 during the day," Deputy Commissioner of Police S.B.S. Tyagi told IANS.

"We are firm on our demand to postpone the examination date and scrapping of CSAT. Our protest will continue till the government accedes to our demands," said Kripal Bansal, a Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam aspirant.

The government Monday had said marks for English language comprehension skills will not be included in preparing the UPSC merit list.

The students started their protest from July 27 in Mukherjee Nagar, a residential area in north Delhi near Delhi University that is popular with students who pour into the capital from other states to prepare for the civil services examination.

The protesting aspirants have been asking the government to scrap the CSAT, as they say it "discriminates" against those with Hindi and humanities background.