Govt has asked MPSC to rethink implementation of new syllabus: Fadnavis

Amid a protest by hundreds of aspirants preparing for various competitive exams at Balgandharva chowk since Monday, the Maharashtra government has asked the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) to reconsider its decision to change the syllabus for its exams from this year failing which the government plans to move court

Amid a protest by hundreds of aspirants preparing for various competitive exams at Balgandharva chowk since Monday, the Maharashtra government has asked the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) to reconsider its decision to change the syllabus for its exams from this year failing which the government plans to move court.

MPSC students protest near Balgandharva on Tuesday. (Kalpesh Nukte/HT PHOTO)

With hundreds of aspiring students protesting at Balgandharva chowk since Monday, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday spoke to them over the phone. Later, he told the media that the Maharashtra government had asked the MPSC – which holds competitive exams for various government jobs – to reconsider its decision to implement the new ‘descriptive pattern’ examination from this year itself.

Fadnavis assured the protesting aspirants that if the MPSC does not reconsider the demand, the state government may go to court over this issue. “As the MPSC is an autonomous organisation and the state government cannot interfere with it or give any directions, we will wait for its decision,” Fadnavis said.

The protesting students are demanding that the upcoming MPSC exam be conducted as per the old exam pattern. Mahesh Jadhav, one of the protesters, said, “Our decision is firm and we will not stop the protest until the MPSC issues a notification about the change in decision and postpones implementing of the new pattern to 2025.”

Meanwhile, BJP leader Abhimanyu Pawar reached the venue of the protest and interacted with the agitating students and called Fadnavis over the phone. Fadnavis then told the students over the phone, “The chief minister and I discussed this issue with the commission and we have told the commission that the decision should be implemented from 2025. The commission can convince the students by any means, while efforts are being made for this decision to be taken on a priority basis.”

The students will not stop agitating unless a notification to that effect is issued. About the same, Fadnavis said that the students’ sentiments are right but the commission is autonomous. “If it was in the hands of the government, the government would have issued the notification today. But now, we have to follow up. However, if the commission upholds the decision, the government will have to go to court against it,” he said.

Earlier, chief minister Shinde had requested the commission via letter to accept this demand of the students and postpone the decision on the descriptive examination method. He had also expressed the hope that the commission would give relief to lakhs of youth in the state by taking an urgent decision on the matter.

In the new, descriptive pattern exam, there are a total nine papers instead of the earlier six papers in the subjective pattern. While the exam is of 1,750 marks as compared to the earlier exam of 800 marks. And the major change in the new pattern is that 300 marks each of the two language papers would not be included in the merit score, which would impact the students’ overall scores. To qualify for the merit score, a candidate would have to score 25% marks in each paper. All the papers would be in the descriptive pattern and of 250 marks each under the new system.