Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, May 13: In a major decision, Government today recommended changes in the pattern of UPSC exam for selection to IAS/IPS/IFS and Allied Services.
Disclosing this to the media, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, after extensive discussions at different levels and with different groups of people, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) today issued directions for constituting an expert committee to comprehensively examine various issues including eligibility, syllabus, scheme and pattern of the Civil Services Examination.
Elaborating further, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, till such time as the recommendations of this committee are received and the Government subsequently takes a decision on the same, the General Studies Paper-II (CSAT) in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will remain a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33 per cent. This is a very significant and path-breaking decision and is expected to satisfy the long-pending grievance of large sections of students and aspirants, he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled last year’s decision by the Government to exclude the English portion consisting of 22 marks in the General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination from tabulation so that there was no possibility of language bias in favour of English knowing aspirants and said, this decision will continue to remain applicable henceforth also.
Referring to the sequence of events and various inputs received from different quarters which had inspired this decision, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the Government’s intention is to make Civil Services Exam a level playing field for all sections of students so that there is no advantage or disadvantage to any section of students. It was being alleged that some portions of the present syllabus and pattern offered high-scoring benefit to students from Mathematics and Engineering backgrounds, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Government wants that the best and the most deserving should enter the administrative services and should have a genuine aptitude for being a part of the administrative set up of contemporary India. At the end of the day, he said, all these efforts are aimed at ensuring and accomplishing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission of “Maximum Governance Minimum Government”.
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