The Ministry of Home Affairs has approved conducting the exam for Constable (General Duty) position in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in 13 regional languages, including Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil apart from English and Hindi. A statement issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) said that this move was made to encourage more aspirants to take the exam and improve their prospects of selection as well.
The exam will be conducted in 13 regional languages including Marathi, Assamese, Konkani, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Odia, Urdu, and Manipuri from January 2024 onwards. The statement from PIB said that the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Staff Selection Commission which conducts the exam would sign an addendum to the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate conducting the exams in multiple languages. The PIB also directed the states and union territories to launch an awareness campaign to inform people about the exams being conducted in multiple languages to encourage their participation.
On April 8, 2023, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana demanded that the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) conduct exams in regional languages, including Telugu. Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah stating that these exams being conducted in Hindi and English is “against the spirit of the Constitution” as there were many regional languages in the country. According to the Times of India, he added that people who were not well-versed in Hindi and English should also be given a chance to appear for these exams.