• In a first, the constable (general duty) recruitment examination in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) is being conducted in 13 regional languages in addition to Hindi and English.

• The examination is being conducted from February 10 to March 7.

• Around 48 lakh candidates are appearing for the exam in 128 cities across the country.

• In addition to Hindi and English, the question papers will now be prepared in the following 13 regional languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri and Konkani. 

• This decision has been taken to increase the participation of local youths in the Central Armed Police Forces and to promote regional languages.

• Constable examination is one of the flagship recruitment tests conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) attracting lakhs of youths from across the country.

Central Armed Police Forces

• Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) refers to the common nomenclature of seven security forces. It is under administrative control of the home ministry. 

The CAPF consist of:

1) Border Security Force (BSF)

2) Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)

3) Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)

4) Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)

5) Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)

6) Assam Rifles (AR) 

7) National Security Guard (NSG).

• Out of these, AR, BSF, ITBP and SSB are the ‘Border Guarding Forces’ while CRPF is deployed to assist the civil administration under the state governments/UT administrations in matters relating to maintenance of Public Order, internal security and counter insurgency. 

• The Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) are specialised wings of the CRPF to deal with the riots and Left Wing Extremism / insurgency. 

• CISF provides protection to vital installations of national/strategic importance. 

• The National Security Guard (NSG) is a specialised strike force trained in  counter-terrorism and anti-hijacking operations. It is also entrusted with the task of securing the high risk VIPs and acts as sky marshal for securing the domestic and international flights.

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