UPSC protest: Students block railway tracks in Bihar

Students led by All India Students' Association (AISA) Saturday blocked railway tracks in Bihar's Bhojpur and Darbhanga districts demanding scrapping of the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) from the UPSC entrance examination, police said.

"Students protesting against the CSAT format, stopped long route trains and sat on tracks at Ara railway station in Bhojpur and Darbhanga railway station," a police officer said.

The CSAT is a conspiracy to sideline the Hindi-speaking students of north Indian states from the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination, the students said.

They also shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his NDA government and threatened to intensify the protests across the country.

"The AISA would launch protests across the country if NDA government failed to scrap the CSAT format soon," said AISA activist Murtunjay Kumar.

AISA is a student body of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) CPI(ML).

Earlier this week, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists staged protests and blocked railway tracks in Patna and demanded scrapping of the CSAT.

The CSAT-II paper carries questions on 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).

The aspirants have been objecting against the aptitude test and English language questions asked in the CSAT-II paper, claiming those were much above the standard prescribed for the examination.