Parliamentary panel seeks expert group to assess civil services exam

A parliamentary committee has sought creating an expert group to assess the impact and result of the civil services examination pattern and whether it allows a level-playing field to rural and non-English medium candidates vis a vis their urban, English medium counterparts.

The panel chaired by BJP's Sushil Modi has also emphasised on the need for the IAS training module to increase village stay to bridge the gap between 'the governing and the governed' and sought a committee to examine the issue of IAS officers not filing their annual property returns.

The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) has conveyed the panel's suggestion to Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA).


The latter is exploring a 3-week village module as part of district training phase, the parliamentary committee has been informed.

In the 122nd Report on Action taken on Demands for Grants (2022-23) pertaining to DoPT, the parliamentary panel said an expert committee must be set up to assess the impact of changes made in the scheme, pattern and syllabus of civil services examination in the last ten years and on the "quality of recruitment and administration at large".

"The expert group so constituted may assess if the present scheme of recruitment provides an equal opportunity to both English-medium educated urban candidates and non-English medium educated rural candidates," said the panel report tabled last week. "The expert group may also assess if the existing pattern of preliminary and mains examination has created a level-playing field for all candidates irrespective of their academic background," it said. It has sought to be apprised about the decision taken by UPSC in this regard.

The panel has also recommended that LBSNAA 're-orient' its training programme to make young civil servants 'sensitive' to the needs of the general public, especially the marginalised and the vulnerable.

It has suggested that the academy assign young officer trainees to tribal hamlets, remote villages, and areas with harsh terrains and difficult conditions for two-three weeks to enable them to get first-hand experience about the challenges faced by these groups of people on a day-to-day basis. LBSNAA is learnt to be exploring the idea of increasing the current one week training in development administration to a three-week village-stay module in the district training phase.