New Delhi, Apr 18: In a landmark decision, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has approved conduct of the Staff Selection Commission Multitasking (non-technical) Staff (SSC MTS) examination and CHSL Examination for government jobs in 15 languages including 13 regional languages.
This was announced by Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also the Minister In-charge DoPT.
He said this historic decision has been taken at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give impetus to participation of local youth and encourage regional languages.
In addition to Hindi and English, the question paper will be now set in the 13 regional languages i.e. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri (also Meiti) and Konkani, he said.
The decision will result in lakhs of aspirants taking part in the examination in their mother tongue/regional language and improve their selection prospects.
Minister said there had been persistent demands from different States to hold SSC exams in languages other than English and Hindi.
To start with the Commission has decided to conduct MTS Examination, 2022 and CHSLE Examination, 2022 in 15 languages (13 regional languages + Hindi + English) as used by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) / Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) for conducting their examination. The notice of MTS Exam has already been issued. Notice for CHSL Exam in Multi-Language will be issued in May-June 2023.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that attempts are being made to eventually incorporate all of the languages listed in the Constitution’s Eighth Schedule.
He added that SSC continually works to ensure that all segments of the people have an equal opportunity to succeed in order to eliminate regional inequities and realise the Constitution’s principles while also recognising and valuing our nation’s linguistic variety.
The Minister said that the action is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to ensure that everyone gets an equal opportunity to apply for jobs and that no one is dis-enfranchised or placed at a disadvantage because of a language barrier.
The Minister added that the action will satisfy the long-standing requests of candidates from many states, “particularly from south India, for the exams that were previously held in English and Hindi”.
