Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and civil service aspirants demonstrate at a railway station to press for scrapping the aptitude test in Patna yesterday.
IAMS/New Delhi
Amid continuing protests by civil service aspirants demanding the scrapping of an aptitude test, the government yesterday said the row would be resolved soon.
“The UPSC issue will be resolved within a week,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh said a day after he apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the steps being taken to address the concerns of the aspirants who have dubbed the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) “discriminatory.”
A students’ delegation met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who promised to raise the issue in parliament. Hundreds of aspirants protested yesterday morning outside the office of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in the heart of New Delhi. The UPSC conducts the civil service examination.
Forty protesters were detained by police.
The aspirants continued their daily protests at Mukherjee Nagar, a residential area near Delhi University popular with students who pour into Delhi from other states to prepare for the civil service examination.
The students want the CSAT scrapped, saying it discriminates against those from the humanities and Hindi background.
A delegation met Gandhi at his 12 Tughlak Lane residence and sought his support.
Shubhankar Vats, who was in the delegation, said: “Rahul Gandhi has assured us that he will raise the issue in parliament.”
Ajit Chakravarti, a protesting student, said: “We are demanding our rights... The protests will not stop till the government agrees to our demand.”
The protesters burnt their entrance examination admit cards and raised slogans against former minister Kapil Sibal. In a bid to disperse them, police used water cannons.
The CSAT-II paper carries questions on comprehension, interpersonal skills, including communication skills, logical reasoning and analytical ability, decision-making and problem-solving, general mental ability, basic numeracy, and English language comprehension skills (of Class 10 level).
The aspirants have been objecting to the aptitude test and English language questions, claiming they were much above the standard prescribed for the examination.
