UPSC row: Centre says English marks will not be included in merit

"The government is of the opinion that in the Civil Services Preliminary examination, Paper II, the marks of the question section on 'English language comprehension skills' should not be included for gradation or merit," Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel said in a brief statement in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Singh said that all the aspirants who appeared for the Civil Services Examination from 2011 would get one more more attempt in 2015.

The move comes after the protesters and Oppositions accused the UPSC of bias against those from rural, Hindi and regional language background.

Lawmakers had earlier also created a ruckus over the issue after hundreds of  UPSC aspirants resorted to violent protest in Delhi over the Civil Services Aptitude Test for UPSC exams demanding its withdrawal since they claimed it to be favouring those who studied in English.

The aspirants demanded scrapping of C-SAT (Aptitude Test) for the UPSC  exam besides inclusion of Hindi as language.

The Centre earlier had said it has formed a  three- Member Committee  to look into the controversy  Civil Services Examination conducted by the UPSC as  aspirants protest the changes made in the examination pattern. 

There are two compulsory papers of 200 marks each in the preliminary examination -  CSAT I and CSAT II. The latter 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 the 20-mark English language comprehension skills of Class X level.

The prelims entrance exam is scheduled to take place on Aug 24.