The union government has asked Union Public Service Commission to postpone the Civil Services preliminary exam scheduled for August 24, 2014.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh said the government wanted to postpone the exams till clarity was reached on the syllabus issue.

The order came after civil services aspirants sought scrapping of the Civil Services Aptitude Tests (C-SAT) staged a protest on Sunday outside the residence of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

According to the reports in media, protestors say the newly-introduced CSAT has degraded the value of India’s toughest examination. Asserting that the introduction of CSAT is like playing with the future of UPSC aspirants, they claimed that it has created a condition of partiality for the candidates of Hindi medium.

Protestors also demanded a four-year relaxation in age for appearing in the examinations of these services.
Later, a four-member delegation of aspirants met Mr. Singh and put forth their demands before him requesting him to intervene in the matter.

The Civil Services Aptitude Tests is the preliminary-level examination which intends to focus on assessing the analytical abilities of the candidates. It was introduced in the year 2011.

The Central government early this year approved age relaxation to the extent of general candidates to be allowed to appear for the exam till the age of 32 years, SC and ST candidates till the age limit of 37 years and OBCs for 35 years.