New Delhi, August 7
The government today made it clear that there was no scope for any change or postponement of the upcoming UPSC’s Civil Services Examination slated for August 24.

The AIADMK gave a new twist to the controversy by seeking examination in all 22 languages under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as both Houses witnessed uproarious scenes today.

In Lok Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said: “As for this year, there is no scope for postponement of (UPSC preliminary) examination.” He turned down request for any more changes as of now, saying: “It is a Civil Service Examination and changes cannot be done overnight.”

In Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Javadekar said a discussion was needed for any major reform in the UPSC exam pattern. “An all-party meeting will definitely take place,” he said.

The meeting is to be conducted after the preliminary exam — the first stage of the three-stage selection process — is conducted on August 24. On conducting the examination in multiple languages, Naidu said: “There is a force in what our friends are saying about different national languages. I do not call them regional languages or Indian languages, and that is an issue to be debated and discussed with all people concerned, including the UPSC.”

AIADMK’s M Thambidurai raised the issue of conducting the exam in all languages under Schedule 8 of the Constitution. “At present, the exam is held only in Hindi and English languages. What about other languages? Therefore, we are demanding that the examination be conducted in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and all other languages, which are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.”

Sources said it would be a mammoth exercise if the AAIDMK demand was accepted. The list has been expanded in the past and more additions are in the offing. On August 5, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha that there was no established set of objective criteria for the inclusion of languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

“At present, there are demands for 38 more languages for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule,” the minister had said.