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New Delhi: Responding to widespread youth protests, the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government on February 24 bowed to pressure and canceled the state police recruitment exam amid widespread question paper leaks and other irregularities across Uttar Pradesh Conduct Complaints.
Additionally, the government has launched an investigation into the recently held examinations for the positions of 411 Examiner and Assistant Examiner following similar allegations.
More than 4.8 million aspirants – a large number even by the standards of India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh – are vying for 67,000 police posts.
Amid reports of irregularities and widespread document leaks, aspirants took to the streets and staged demonstrations outside government offices across the state. They are demanding new tests for police officers.
Cutting across castes and religions, these aspirants also staged massive protests outside the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission office in Prayagraj, pushing the BJP government into a corner.
‘Government’s pattern of denial, even after an aspirant filed an FIR alleging document leakage’
In Lucknow, thousands of aspirants gathered at Eco Garden to protest. They shouted, “A slogan, a name, retest, retest” A witty riff on the Sangh’s popular Hindu slogan Parivar, “One slogan, one name, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram.”
The slogan raised by the aspirants is a comment on political current affairs in the state, where welfare issues are clashing with the BJP’s Hindutva agenda ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
After initially denying allegations of document leaks, the Uttar Pradesh Home Ministry, led by Chief Minister Adityanath, said on Saturday afternoon that it has directed the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRPB) to conduct a new exam within six months .
A UP police task force will investigate the allegations of document leakage.
On February 19, a police officer in Lucknow lodged a first information report (FIR) over the leakage of question papers at its examination center within hours of the two-day examination. Still, the top leadership and officials of the BJP have denied the allegations of leaked documents.
electric wire A copy of the FIR said that around 150 questions were found on paper slips carried by the accused applicants to the exam center and the presence of these questions on the question paper indicated that the question paper had been leaked in advance.
On February 23, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya dismissed the allegations of document leak, attributing it to the agenda of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and said he had no information about any such irregularity.
Separately, a delegation of seven students met UPPRPB Director General Renuka Mishra and submitted a memorandum of demands to her. However, she did not publicly acknowledge the document leak. She said the committee was reviewing emailed complaints from aspirants who claimed there had been document leaks.
Even during the review period on February 17 and 18, the UPPRPB dismissed any allegation of paper leakage, saying preliminary investigations found that some “anti-social elements” were spreading rumors of paper leakage on social media after tampering with information. The file is generated through the edit option on the Telegram app.
However, as the accusations continued to pour in, aspirants began to raise objections on social media, with the UPPRPB saying on February 18 after the written examination that it would “thoroughly verify” the “unconfirmed news” circulating on social media ”.
Amid the protests, the UPPRPB asked aspirants to submit evidence regarding the alleged document leak by the evening of February 23. They assured protesters that they would thoroughly review the witnesses and evidence presented and take follow-up actions based on the findings.
The cancellation of the police recruitment exam, with opposition parties including the Samajwadi Party and the Congress throwing their support behind the protesters, has left the Bharatiya Janata Party government red-faced as it wanted to showcase its job creation record before the general election. .
As a damage control measure, the government said it would provide candidates with free state-run bus transport whenever exams are held again.
The Adityanath government has directed the UPPRPB, headed by a senior IPS officer, to find out the level at which the negligence occurred and lodge an FIR against the culprits.
The government said it canceled the exam after reviewing “facts” and “information” about the irregularities and aimed to maintain the “transparency” and “sanctity” of the exam.
Adityanath said strict action will be taken against individuals and institutions found guilty in the matter.
Another case of paper leakage
The government has also launched a probe into the recently held examination (February 11) for the posts of Examiner and Assistant Examiner and has sought complaints from aspirants till February 27.
The Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment Examination 2023 is conducted at nearly 2,400 centers across the state. From February 15 to 18, state police, including the UP STF, said they arrested or detained at least 244 people on charges including cheating in exams, impersonating candidates to solicit money, successfully defrauding candidates with promises and deceiving candidates with promises. . Leak the newspaper to them. Even after the exams were over, the arrests continued. As of now, a final tally of arrests related to the incident has not yet been determined.
Among those arrested were Indian Navy deserter Monu Gurjar from Shamli, who allegedly tried to rig exams; Anjani Kumar, a trainee from Singhiyaghat in neighboring Bihar state a stationmaster who allegedly took the exam as a “solver” on behalf of a candidate from Gorakhpur; an exam invigilator in Basti who was allegedly caught coaching candidates; and a former Gazipur district A Pradhan, he is a member of the Fixers gang. Police also arrested a number of people suspected of spreading rumors about newspaper leaks.
On February 23, the Sanyukt Yuva Morcha, a forum of youth organizations, wrote to Chief Minister Adityanath requesting the withdrawal of cases against those who criticized the government over leaked documents or provided information about lapses.
In early February, Adityanath informed the state assembly that the BJP government had recruited 1.55 lakh police personnel, including 22,670 women, since coming to power. The last major recruitment was in 2019, when 49,568 civilian police and armed police personnel were examined.
What does the FIR say?
The FIR in the document leak case was lodged at Krishna Nagar police station in Lucknow at midnight on February 19 based on a complaint by police constable Rambabu Singh.
Against a candidate Satya Aman Kumar under Section 420 (Cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 66D of the Information Technology Act and Sections 3 and 10 of the UP Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1998 A case was registered against Neeraj Kumar for allegedly providing a copy of the question paper to Aman before the exam, according to police.
The matter came to light when two invigilators at the City Modern College examination center informed police constable Ram Babu that a candidate was found filling the OMR form with an illegal note in his hand.
After checking the note with the test paper, the police found that the questions were exactly the same. Aman Kumar’s phone was checked and it was found that Neeraj had sent him the correct answers on the question paper through WhatsApp before the exam. Aman allegedly prepared the note based on documents sent to him by Neeraj, the FIR said.
At least three SP MLAs, Atul Pradhan, Ragini Sonker and Pinki Yadav, and one RLD MLA, Persann Kumar, have written to Adityanath saying that some aspirants in their constituencies have informed them that the paper has been leaked on mobile phones and social media Application, well in advance of scheduled exam.
“A great victory for student power”
Soon after the exams were cancelled, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the decision was “a victory for the youth and a defeat of the BJP government’s machinations”. Yadav claimed that since the BJP government had earlier denied the document leak, their admission now meant there was collusion between officials and criminals, who were enjoying the blessings of the government.
“But in the face of all the evidence, the government was forced to cave in to avoid a historic electoral defeat,” said Yadav, a strong supporter of the protests.
The former chief minister asked the BJP government to return the fees collected by submitting a form and doubted whether the huge sum of Rs.
“Everyone is now starting to understand the truth about the game that the BJP government is playing with unemployed young men and women in the name of employment. First, they declare job vacancies for show, charge billions of rupees as fees, allow documents to leak and then pretend to cancel these jobs… This time, the BJP will pay a high price,” Yadav said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been outspoken in support of the candidates’ demands during the New Year celebrations at UP, said the cancellation of exams was “a major victory for student power and youth unity”.
“The message is clear – no matter how governments try to suppress the truth, our rights can only be won through a united struggle. Those who unite will win, those who divide will lose,” Gandhi said.
His sister Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, who had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the question paper leaks, said the leak of each UP exam paper not only proves that the people of India There is widespread corruption in the party government and, more seriously, carelessness and carelessness on the part of the BJP. Misleading Government Attitudes.
Adityanath, meanwhile, said there will be “no compromise” on the sanctity of the exams. “Those who take advantage of the hard work of young people will be spared at any cost,” he said.
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