A section of students preparing for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) examinations is demanding that the new descriptive pattern of question papers be implemented from 2025 instead of this year.

Several MPSC aspirants staged a protest here to press the demand on Friday. Similar protests were also held in Kolhapur, Nagpur and Aurangabad.

In June 2022, the MPSC, through which the state government employees are recruited, announced that it would switch to descriptive pattern examinations from the current objective type.

"Our demand is that the descriptive pattern be implemented from 2025 instead of 2023 because students will need some time to prepare for the new syllabus," said one of the protesting students on Friday.

In July 2022, the MPSC had claimed that some `self-proclaimed' student organizations and coaching institutes were driving a campaign to pressurize the commission to implement the new syllabus from 2025 instead of 2023.

It would not yield to such pressure, and the `Pre' and `Main' exams in 2023 will be conducted as per the new pattern and syllabus, it had asserted.

Asked about the protests, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the new pattern was recommended by the Dalvi Committee formed by the previous government.

"Somewhere down the line we have to implement the syllabus on the lines of the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission). Today these students are asking us to implement it from 2025, but in 2025, somebody would demand that it be deferred to 2027. We cannot do this. We have to ensure quality," he told reporters.