The government has ruled out any immediate changes in the procedure for the conduct of Civil Services Examinations. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M.Venkaiah Naidu has said the changes in the procedure cannot be made overnight.

He was responding to queries by some of the members in the Lok Sabha today on the CSAT issue. He assured that the government will take appropriate action in this regard.

Earlier, Thambi Durai of the AIADMK and other members demanded to include all the languages of the 8th schedule as medium of Civil Services Examinations.

The government will convene an all-party meeting to solicit the views of the Opposition members on the CSAT issue immediately after the Budget Session.

Responding to members’ concern on the controversial CSAT,
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in the Rajya Sabha today that the aim of the all-party meeting will be to arrive at a common approach to address the problem.

He said the issue needs deep study and proper discussion by members. He, however, ruled that there is no scope for cancellation of the Civil Services Examination conducted by the UPSC scheduled for the 24th of August this year.

He appealed to the agitating students to concentrate on their preparation for civil service examinations.

Earlier, as soon as the House met for the day, some of the Opposition members demanded suspension of question hour to take up a discussion on CSAT.

They also wanted a discussion on hiking of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Insurance and Defence sectors. Leaders from the Left Parties, JD(U), Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party raised the CSAT issue and demanded that the two issues be taken up during Zero Hour.

As the House witnessed noisy scenes, Chairman Mohammed Hamid Ansari adjourned it for 15 minutes till 1130 hrs.