The marks obtained in the civil services aptitude test (CSAT) will no longer be included in deciding the merit of candidates clearing the Combined State Upper Subordinate Services (Preliminary) Examination — or PCS (Pre) as it is commonly known — besides the lower subordinate (preliminary) exams. The merit list is made to determine which of the candidates can go on to take the main exams.
In other words, the CSAT will now be just ‘qualifying’ in nature for the forthcoming preliminary recruitment examination of these two exams of the UPPSC.
Accepting the students’ demand, the state government has issued the requisite directives to the UPPSC for making the CSAT a mere qualifying paper. A fax in this regard was received at the commission on Monday.
Commission secretary Suresh Kumar Singh confirmed the state government’s decision and said that a communiqué had been received by the commission from the state capital in this regard.
The move fulfils the long-pending demand of the aspirants of these competitive recruitment exams who have launched various movements to convince the government to make CSAT just ‘qualifying’ in nature for the candidates. Their other demand that the candidates affected by CSAT in the past four years be granted two additional chances to clear the exam has not been fulfilled yet.
The UPPSC had introduced the CSAT in the PCS (Pre) and lower subordinate recruitment exams in 2012 in line with the move by the Union Public service Commission (UPSC).
{{/usCountry}}The UPPSC had introduced the CSAT in the PCS (Pre) and lower subordinate recruitment exams in 2012 in line with the move by the Union Public service Commission (UPSC).
{{/usCountry}}The introduction of CSAT resulted in a sharp drop in selection of Hindi medium students and allegations of it being tilted in favour English medium students.
After many agitations, the UPSC withdrew its decision and made CSAT a mere ‘qualifying’ paper in 2014 in which a candidate was required to score just 33% marks to become eligible for the next round but the marks were not added in deciding the merit of final selections.
The UPSC move led to many of the state commissions like that of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, dumping CSAT altogether and others like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Public Service Commission making CSAT ‘qualifying’ in nature.
However, the UPPSC continued to include CSAT marks in deciding the merit for the main examination of the PCS (pre) and the lower subordinate (pre) recruitments.
Following quashing of the appointment of Anil Kumar Yadav as UPPSC chair man by the Allahabad high court, the demand for making CSAT ‘qualifying’ in nature for the UPPSC exams also gained fresh momentum.
Read more: Civil services aptitude test to stay, says govt