This is a great news for those in the rural areas, who were left behind by the UPSC when the decision was made. However, now interested candidates will now be able to write the exam in a regional language instead of only English.
According to V.Narayanasamy, Minister for Personnel and Training, the candidate will be allowed to use any one of the regional language under schedule 8 of the constitution or English as the medium of writing the exam.
Further, the English component of 100 marks from the essay paper will also be dropped. Status quo ante of two qualifying papers of 300 marks each in any modern Indian Language and in English shall be restores, said the minister.
On a day when the Centre announced its decision to drop the 100-mark English paper from the pool of subjects that would go into preparing the merit list for the UPSC exams, CM PrithvirajChavan indicated that he was not in favour of the move.
Amid all-round opposition, Union minister of state for personnel V Narayanswamy announced the decision in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The UPSC had introduced the paper on March 5, but it was kept in abeyance following intense opposition.
Shiv Sena Extreme Happy With the Decision of UPSC.
Welcoming the restoration of two qualifying papers in regional languages in UPSC exams, the Shiv Sena today said the Centre should consult states in the future if it wants to tweak the pattern of the elite examinations.
"We (Sena) raised the issue and launched an agitation against the changes in UPSC exam pattern," MLC Neelam Gorhe, who initiated a discussion on the issue in the Upper House today, said. "The state government should have raised the issue with the Centre, before Sena and others took it up," Gorhe said.