NEW DELHI: Amid continuing protests against the pattern of Civil Service Aptitude Test by aspirants belonging to Hindi-medium backgrounds in the national capital, the government said on Monday that the issue will be resolved within a week.
“The UPSC issue will be resolved within a week as discussions are going on,” said Home Minister Rajnath Singh. He added that a decision will be taken only after they get a report from the three-member government-appointed committee, which is looking into the demands of aspirants to change the question paper pattern.
Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh met Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the issue. After the meeting, Singh briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the situation and outlined the steps being taken by the Centre.
When asked whether the civil services preliminary examination scheduled to be held on August 24 will be postponed, Singh said that meetings were still on to find a way out following a directive from Modi.
Earlier in day, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also wrote to Modi demanding his intervention in the matter as a large number of Hindi-medium aspirants from the State appear for the exam each year.
In the meantime, a group of aspirants also met Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi at his residence and requested him to intervene in the matter. Gandhi promised the students that no injustice would be done to the aspirants.
The aspirants then dodged all police attempts to thwart them and gathered outside the UPSC headquarters at Shahjahan Road and continued their protest for about an hour. Some of the aspirants burnt their admit cards.
The police deployed water cannon to disperse the gathering. Around 200 protesters were rounded up and taken to Tilak Marg police station in police buses. They were let off later in the evening.
One of the aspirants, Ajit Kumar Chakraborty said, “It seems that we will not be able to appear for the exam this year. We have been protesting for past one month. We will not end the protest till we get justice.”