Demands of civil service aspirants to be look into: Govt

Amid demands by civil service aspirants for scrapping the CSAT test, Government today assured the agitating students that it would look into their demands sympathetically and has asked the concerned committee to expedite its report.
"The three-member committee was set up on March 12 this year before our government took over. But its report is yet to come and we have instructed this committee to expedite it.
"We have full sympathy with their cause and there should be no discrimination on the basis of language. I appeal to the students not to put themselves in physical or mental stress," Minister of State for Personnel and Training Jitendra Singh said in Lok Sabha.

He said the government is already seized of the issue and has taken it up "very seriously and in a sensitive manner".
"We can decide on the next course of action depending on the contents of the report of the committee," Singh said.
His statement came amid protests by Congress, RJD and Samajwadi Party members, who trooped into the Well and raised slogans against "discrimination" by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) against candidates opting for Hindi and regional languages as medium for civil services examination.

The agitated MPs also charged the Minister with misleading the House.
The aspirants, mainly students, have been holding prolonged protests and resorting to hunger strike for several weeks demanding scrapping of Civil Services Aptitude Tests (CSAT), saying the exam pattern was putting Hindi and regional language aspirants at a disadvantage.

Singh had said outside Parliament yesterday that UPSC has been asked to postpone the preliminary exam scheduled on August 24 till there was clarity on the syllabus and exam pattern.