Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 3 : In reply to a question in Lok Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Development of North Eastern (DoNER), MoS in PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, said that Government has no plans to reduce or alter the existing age limit for appearing in IAS / Civil Services Examination (CSE).
Responding to an apprehension expressed by some members about reports regarding reduction in the age limit for IAS / CSE examination, Dr Jitendra Singh clarified that the concern of the Members was justified because a section of media had recently come out with such a report which was unsubstantiated and the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) had also issued a rebuttal.
As of today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the current status is that the upper age limit for the General category aspirants to appear in IAS / CSE exam is 32 years with maximum of 6 attempts, for Other Backward Classes (OBC) the age limit is 35 years with maximum of 9 attempts whereas for the SC / ST category the upper age limit is 37 years with unlimited number of attempts.
In a reply to another supplementary alleging that the present question paper syllabus offered advantage to Engineering students by enabling them to secure higher marks, Dr Jitendra Singh said that there is an opinion in certain sections that engineering or maths students enjoy an advantage over students of Humanities while writing the IAS question paper in its present format and added, this issue along with the issue of inappropriate translation of certain phrases from English to Hindi, has also been referred to a committee of experts.
He further informed that following an All Parliamentary Party meeting on the subject held on 23rd of last month, the DoPT has prepared a brief note citing chronological order in which from time to time different changes or modifications were affected in the IAS examination pattern from time to time beginning from Kothari report in 1970’s to Khanna’s report in 2011 and Nigavakar report in 2012. This brief note has been sent to the leaders of the political parties in the Parliament so that they may offer their suggestions in writing for further changes or modifications in the IAS pattern if required, he added.
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