Opposing the practice of adding marks obtained in English to the grand total of the UPSC exam results, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has urged removal of unnecessary and anti-people practices in the prelims and main exam of the Union Public Service Commission.
In his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister said adding of English marks is an attack on the morale and future of not only rural and tribal youths, but also on the possibilities of youths living in urban slums, on the urban poor and middle class.
Chouhan said a number of youths belonging to these sections have made it to the Indian Administrative Service, Police Service, Forest Service, Revenue and other services due to their extraordinary talents during last some decades.
It is due to such officers that the gap between the State and society has been reduced and developed trust among people towards the administrative machinery. These youths became source of inspiration to their counterparts in the same sections from where they have come.
Wherever these youths have been posted, they have provided a deep psychological trust to common people. He asked the Prime Minister if this situation is not worthy of continuing in future.
The Chief Minister said that due to administrative weakness, high-level English-medium could not be established in rural and urban areas of India. But innocent youths are being punished for this incapability even when these youths are not responsible for this. Rather, they are the victims. He said that it is meaningless to hope that such students will be able to compete with foreign-return students.
It is also not proper to say that only 100 out of total 2,075 marks will play insignificant role since it is a competitive exam in which up to three students stand in the same place of merit on the basis of even a single mark. Under such circumstances, these 100 marks are going to play a decisive role. By the way, there was a provision earlier also with which test of minimum knowledge of this language was taken.