TEAM HERALD
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NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday relaxed the rules of the Civil Services Examination by further modifying those notified on March 5 by allowing a candidate to answer the examination in any of the languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution or in English.
For Goans this would mean they could answer the examination in Konkani or English as the former was accepted in the 8th schedule via an amendment in August 1992.
The condition of a minimum of 25 candidates in a particular language to allow it to be the medium of examination and the requirement that the candidate pass graduation in that language have been dropped. Also dispensed with is the condition that a candidate can take up literature as the optional subject from a list of 22 literature subjects in the 8th Schedule languages or in English only if he or she has graduated in that language’s literature.
The government had earlier dropped the English component of essay paper of 100 marks following strong protests in parliament and a candidate can write the essay paper of 250 marks in any language of his or her choice. Also two qualifying papers of 300 marks in any modern Indian language (MIL) or English have been restored.
The revised rules as published by the Ministry of Personnel say papers I and II will be of qualifying nature only– one in any MIL and another in English – of 300 marks each; while paper III of 250 marks will be the compulsory essay paper, with no English comprehension test, to be written in the language of the candidate’s choice.
There will be four compulsory papers of general studies of 250 marks each, namely, paper-IV (Indian
heritage & culture, history and geography of the world and society), Paper-V (governance, constitution, polity, social justice and international relations), Paper-VI (technology, economic development, bio diversity, environment, security and disaster management) and Paper-VII (ethics, integrity and aptitude).
Paper VIII and IX of 250 marks each in any of 48 optional subjects to be selected from a list of 25 core subjects and 23 literatures (literature of 22 languages in 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India and English).
Besides these written tests of total 2350 marks, there will be also another 275 marks to be earned in the interview for the personality test.
