New Delhi, August 1
Amid speculations that the Verma committee report could be against the wishes of the agitating UPSC aspirants, the Civil Services Aptitude Test (C-SAT) row again rocked both Houses of Parliament. Assurances by ministers of the NDA government that the matter would be soon resolved could not buy peace as some parties threatened to intensify their protest.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the Rajya Sabha that the government was studying the report submitted by the Verma Committee on the UPSC issue. “We want an early resolution of the matter,” he said. However, dissatisfied by his statement and that of his colleague —- Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh —- on the issue, members of the Congress, BSP, SP and JD-U walked out.

Opposition MPs refused to let the Rajya Sabha function for most part of the morning session. Soon, after obituary reference to Pune landslide victims, they were on their feet, demanding an answer from Jitendra Singh, as he had “promised last week”. Agitated members wanted to know the reasons for a delay on the resolution when the Verma committee set up to analyse the issue had submitted its report.

Sharad Yadav (JD-U) said the government had assured that it would resolve the issue, which involves fate of 7 lakh students, within seven days, but nothing had been done so far and so, he had given a privilege notice.

There were concerns that recommendations made by the panel were against the wishes of the students. SP leader Ram Gopal Verma said his party would oppose the recommendations as they were “said to be against the wishes of students”. “We demand to remove the C-SAT from the syllabus. The 2011 pattern should be used in the examination,” he said.