CSAT examination: Government, UPSC head towards a collision

NEW DELHI: Confrontation is brewing between the Centre and the Union Public Service Commission, with a committee suggesting a status quo regarding the pattern of the 2014 civil services examination while the government wants to drastically reduce weightage allotted to a compulsory English paper worth 22 marks.

The commission, which is authorised to conduct the examination, “will have to listen and follow the directions” of the government even as it is an autonomous body, a senior minister told ET. “Autonomy and independence are fine. But the UPSC is also part of the government. Public interest of a large number of students is involved here,” said the minister, who was not willing to be identified.

The UPSC has so far said no to changing or dropping the English paper in the preliminary examination. A government-appointed committee that submitted its report to the Centre on Thursday has backed the UPSC on this count, officials said.

However, the minister said the government wanted the weightage to this section to be reduced to sixeight marks or the paper to be dropped altogether

The BJP-led government is under intense pressure as protests are being led by the party’s youth wing ABVP and the government has already promised this week that the solution will be as per the “liking of the students”.

The committee has meanwhile suggested that better and sound translations from English to Hindi be provided to students regarding the other questions in the preliminary examination – which is another major grouse of students.