(a) whether the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is yet to implement the Parliamentary Committee''s resolution related to language passed on the 18th January, 1968;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons for not implementing the resolution so far; and
(c) the action taken by the UPSC for implementing the said resolution?
Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office. (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)
(a) to (c): Recruitment for the Government jobs in the country is made in accordance with the approved rules/schemes framed on the basis of job profile and functional requirements of the posts. Keeping in view the Official Language Resolution 1968 adopted by the Parliament, from the year 1969, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducted examinations by giving option to candidates for writing answers for compulsory subjects of Essay and General knowledge, in any of the languages in the Eighth Schedule besides English. Later in 1974, the Expert Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Prof. D.S. Kothari, recommended that this option should be extended to the subject papers as well. Thereafter, the Government of India decided that all question papers must be bilingual, in English and Hindi, and the candidates may write the answers either in English or in any of the languages in the Eighth Schedule. Accordingly, the bilingual format for all the question papers of the Civil Services (Main) Examination was introduced from 1979 and the option of answering them either in English or in any of the languages in the Eighth Schedule was also allowed.
Contd…2/-
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In the recent past the UPSC constituted a Committee of experts headed by Prof. Ananda Krishnan, Former Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, on 13.7.2009 to examine modalities of implementing the recommendations of the Official Language Resolution 1968 in a manner consistent with the high standards of UPSC, without compromising the quality and standard of examinations conducted by the UPSC. The Committee had detailed deliberations with various language experts in the country and submitted its report. The UPSC accepted all the recommendations of the Committee which was further approved by the Government. Accordingly, certain changes were incorporated in the rules for the Civil Services Examination, 2013 but the same had to be withdrawn subsequently.
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