OLC faults new Civils pattern, writes to CM

- Decision a blow to Telugu and rural students - Will coordinate and do needful: Buddha Prasad Special Correspondent Coming down heavily on the new civil services pattern for Mains as a huge blow to students from Andhra Pradesh, the Official Language Commission, on Tuesday, wrote to the Chief Minister and the MPs from the state to exert pressure on the Centre to make a review of the decision taken by UPSC. "It's big loss to Telugu students. It will pour water on the aspirations of people who have neither done in Telugu medium nor study Telugu literature in their graduation. The minimum number of people who should take the Telugu as medium in Mains was also set as 25 which is wrong. On the whole the decision is against the spirit of the Constitution. It will also harm the national integrity. Especially the students from rural background can no more dreams about civil services. We totally oppose this," Mandali Buddha Prasad, Chairman of the Official Language Commission said at a media meet. "There is no chance to study in Telugu medium in corporate colleges. For that matter, the instances of taking Telugu or special Telugu in Degree level have been very few and far between. Students who did B Tech or BE or other tech courses don't have Telugu as medium and hence they cannot write. We don't even have 15 colleges in the entire state where only Telugu literature is taught. In such case, how can we bring a minimum 25 special Telugu candidates?" Buddha Prasad asked. "Rural students who put in their effort and money are now in a state of distress. Students of vulnerable groups have lost hope. Now the government and the MPs should react. I urge all to mount pressure over the Centre. I spoke to Rapolu Anand Bhaskar who promised me to take up the matter with the Central government. MPs of all regions shall join hands" he said. KV Ramanachary, Advisor to government on cultural affairs, has also criticised the UPSC for being discriminatory towards regional languages. "If we don't support the cause of our mother tongue, we are in fact ungrateful to and betraying our mother," he said. Buddha Prasad has released a book "History of Telugu Literature", a translated version of Dr Dwana Sastry's book on the occasion. The book was written with a sole aim of giving an overview of Telugu literature for the civil services aspirants. Dwana Sastry, himself a scholar and an authority over civils curriculum, termed the UPSC's decision as arbitrary and without any constitutional validity. 'We expect a stay from the High Court where we filed a PIL" he said.