UPSC exams: Sena hails restoration of regional language papers

Welcoming the restoration of two qualifying papers in regional languages in UPSC exams, the Shiv Sena today said the Centre should consult states in the future if it wants to tweak the pattern of the elite examinations.
"We (Sena) raised the issue and launched an agitation against the changes in UPSC exam pattern," MLC Neelam Gorhe, who initiated a discussion on the issue in the Upper House today, said.
"The state government should have raised the issue with the Centre, before Sena and others took it up," Gorhe said.
"Henceforth, if any such changes are to be made, they (UPSC) should consult state MPs and higher education officials. Or else, it will give the impression that the regional languages are being marginalised," she said.

As per the latest decision, the English essay paper of 100 marks in the 2013 Civil Services Main Examination, which raised a nation-wide controversy, has been dropped and the earlier practice of two qualifying papers in any Indian language and English reestablished.
Gorhe welcomed Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's statement in the Council that the state government will not compromise on the issue of Marathi in the UPSC exam.

Chavan, however, said English was also necessary as it is the language of communication.
"Imagine if the state was to get an IAS officer who cannot speak English. I do not think this would be in the state's interest," he said.

Gorhe said the Centre should withdraw the stipulation that question papers would be set in a regional language only if 25 per cent of candidates opt for that language.
Higher and Technical Education Minister Rajesh Tope said the state government would approach the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in this regard.
Chavan, who earlier held the DoPT post, said that some of the UPSC reforms were initiated in his tenure.