CAPF Exam Might be Merged with the Civil Services Exam

The Centre is mulling a new scheme for CAPF exam. As per the reports, the government is planning to change the scheme of the UPSC exam for the recruitment of the entry-level ‘paramilitary forces’. An official privy to the development states that the government is also thinking about merging the exam with the civil services examination that selects IPS and IAS officers. The information has come out in the backdrop of the Union Government granting the OGAS (Organised Group A Service) to CAPFs (Central Armed Police Forces) last year that include BSF, CPRF, CISF, ITBP and SSB. The organised service tag has its own benefits. It allows a service to have its own rules for recruitment and avenues for pay, promotion, command and deputation of its officers.

The deliberations are mainly aimed to change the syllabus and scheme of CAPFs (Assistant Commandant) exam that is being held by the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) since 2003 for the recruiting officers to lead the forces deployed in the border guarding domain of the country and also in the internal security of the nation.

On the direction of the Supreme Court, the Union government offered the OGAS tag to the officers of CAPFs and it is now being thought upon that the civil services examination will merge with the CAPF exam. The officials said that this step of the government might forge a better synergy amidst all the allied services like the IPS (Indian Police Service), IAS (Indian Administrative Service) and the IFoS (Indian Forest Service). They further added that the confirmation is still pending and a final decision is yet to be taken.

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A committee of CAPF officials and senior home ministry raised the issue of changing the pattern, syllabus and scheme of this exam in December last year. The committee has also suggested the addition of new subjects like the challenges of internal security, values and ethics. The officials said that once the decision to merge the test will be taken, CAPF services will be mentioned in a separate section in the UPSC civil services exam notification.

The CAPFs annual exam is conducted in three stages- a written test, a physical efficiency test and an interview.

The exam often leads to recruitment of around 300-400 women and men as per the recruitment projected each year in the age group of 20-25 years for the Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police force, Central Industrial Security Force, and Sashastra Seema Bal.

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The CAPF officials have gone to the court seeking it to intervene to ensure them the full benefit of the OGAS announced last year and curtailing the tenure of the IPS officers in their services up to a certain rank and number.