The Central Government has said that the exam for PO and Railway Mail Service (RMS) accountants in the Department of Posts will also be held in Tamil.
The exams for the post of Accountant in the Postal Service are scheduled to be held on February 14. The official announcement only featured English and Hindi and Tamil was not included.
The two political parties in Tamil Nadu had raised the issue with the Centre. It was informed that action should be taken to write the examination in Tamil. Now, the Centre has allowed for the exam to be held in Tamil as well along with English and Hindi.
The PO and RMS accountant exams are conducted for postal assistants (PA) and sorting assistants (SA) who are already working in the department. It is neither a direct recruitment nor a promotion examination. According to V Santhanaraman, Director of Postal Services, the exam which primarily tests the accountancy skills of clerks is for persons who are willing to change their roles from the existing ones. The exam is also an open-book test where questions are based on the posts and telegram (P & T) manuals and financial manuals. It is expected that not more than 200 people would be attempting it across the country.
The exam has been conducted in English and Hindi only for many years as all the manuals are only in those languages. Mr. Santhanam was also quoted saying in a report that the claim of postal department exams being conducted in regional languages in the past was wrong. Exams for lower grade posts like postmen are conducted in regional languages as they have a connection directly with the consumers.