Rural UPSC aspirants protest again for additional attempts, CSAT Removal

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirants staged a protest near Parliament House on Monday demanding compensation in the form of additional attempts, which they say they lost due to a discriminatory Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) paper during the preliminary examination.

The student protesters were later detained and taken to the Parliament Street police station. A similar protest was held on March 3.

“Introduced in 2011, the CSAT proved to be discriminatory towards students from the rural and regional language background. The government’s Nigvekar Committee and UPSC’s annual report back this claim. But in spite of its controversial nature, the CSAT was not removed until April 2015, and that too after massive protests,” said Anupama Karthik, an aspirant from Hyderabad. “We have been appealing to the government since the last six months, but we haven’t received anything besides assurance,” Ms. Karthik added.

The protesters, meanwhile, chose to clarify that they were not asking for a job or reservation.

‘We are just asking for an opportunity to appear in the exam again,” said Jayprakash Bajpai from Uttar Pradesh.

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Courtesy: The Hindu