BJP comes under pressure amid paper leak allegations, protests After initially denying the paper leak allegations, the UP Home Department under Chief Minister Adityanath on Saturday afternoon said it has asked the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board to Instructions were given to conduct the examination. Six months.
In response to similar accusations, the government has also opened an investigation into the results of the most recent exams for the positions of 411 Review Officer and Assistant Review Officer.
Even by the standards of Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state in India, almost 48 lakh hopefuls were vying for just 67,000 police constable positions.
Amid reports of irregularities and massive paper leaks, candidates took to the streets and demonstrated outside government offices across the state. He has demanded to conduct the police constable examination afresh.
Candidates cutting across caste and religion staged a massive protest outside the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission office in Prayagraj, putting the BJP government in trouble.
Thousands of candidates gathered at Eco Garden in Lucknow to protest.
The slogan raised by the candidates was a commentary on the current affairs of politics in the state where welfare issues are at play against the BJP’s Hindutva agenda ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
After initially denying the paper leak allegations, the UP Home Department under Chief Minister Adityanath on Saturday afternoon said it had directed the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRPB) to conduct the new examination within six months.
The allegations of paper leak will be investigated by the UP Police Special Task Force.
On February 19, a police constable in Lucknow had filed a First Information Report (FIR) over paper leak at his examination center within hours of the two-day exam ending. Despite this, the top leadership and officials of BJP continued to deny the allegations of paper leak.
The Wire has a copy of the FIR, which states that the paper chit carried by an accused applicant to the examination center was found to have around 150 questions which were shown in the question paper, indicating that the paper had already been published. It was leaked.
On February 23, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya rejected the allegations of paper leak, linked it to the agenda of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and said that he had no knowledge of any such irregularity.
In a different meeting, a group of seven students presented a memorandum of demands to Renuka Mishra, the director general of the UPPRPB. However, he did not openly accept the paper leak.He stated that the applications and email complaints from the candidates who claimed to have leaked papers are being reviewed by the board.
Even on the exam days on February 17 and 18, UPPRPB rejected any allegations of paper leak and said preliminary investigation revealed that some “anti-social elements” spread rumors of paper leak on social media after tampering. Was. A document through the editing option on the Telegram app.
However, as allegations continued to be made and candidates started raising objections on social media, after the written examination was over on February 18, UPPRPB said that it would “fully verify” the “unverified news” trending on social media. ” Will do.
Amid the protests, UPPRPB asked candidates to submit evidence regarding the alleged paper leak by the evening of February 23. He assured the protesters that they would thoroughly investigate the witnesses and the evidence provided, and take further action based on their findings.
While opposition parties including SP and Congress strongly supported the agitating candidates during the protests, the cancellation of the constable recruitment exam embarrassed the BJP government, which wanted to showcase its record of job creation ahead of the elections. ,
In an attempt to minimize the damage, the administration has declared that applicants will receive free transportation on state-owned buses whenever the tests are administered again.
The Adityanath government has directed the UPPRPB, headed by a top IPS officer, to find out at what level the negligence occurred and file an FIR against the culprits.
The government said it canceled the exam after investigating the “facts” and “information” of irregularities with the aim of maintaining the “transparency” and “sanctity” of the exam.
Adityanath said that strict action will be taken against individuals and institutions found guilty in this case.
Additionally, the government has opened an investigation into the results of the February 11 tests for the positions of Assistant Review Officers and Review Officers and is accepting complaints from applicants through February 27.
The Uttar Pradesh Police Constable Recruitment Exam 2023 was conducted at around 2,400 centers across the state. From February 15 to 18, the state police, including the UP STF, said they arrested at least 100 accused of cheating in examinations, impersonating candidates for money, cheating candidates by promising success and cheating candidates with promises. 244 people were arrested or detained. For leaking the paper to them. The arrests continued even after the exams were over. At present, there is no confirmation on the number of arrests made in connection with this case.
