GUWAHATI: The Jharkhand government has cancelled the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) and Jharkhand Public Service Commission Combined Graduate Level (JPSC-CGL) examinations and recruitment processes conducted through Lucknow-based management agency TSR Data Processing Private Limited (TDPL), amid an ongoing student protest in Ranchi.
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Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced the decision as students continued their protest at Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda Ground over alleged irregularities in government recruitment examinations.
Soren said all examinations conducted through TDPL since 2014 would be investigated by the Crime Investigation Department (CID), while all results published by the agency would stand cancelled.
“All the exams conducted by TDPL and publication of results by TDPL are now cancelled. Examinations and recruitment conducted through TDPL stand cancelled,” Soren said.
The state government will also constitute an exam reforms committee to recommend measures to overhaul and strengthen the recruitment examination system. Senior IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal will head the committee.
The announcement came after several rounds of talks between the government and protesting students over alleged irregularities and paper leak claims in the JPSC and JSSC-CGL examinations.
The protest began on July 25, when a group of students gathered at Ranchi’s Vapu Batika Ground. The agitation later intensified, with Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha leader Devendra Nath Mahto and other student leaders going on hunger strikes.
Following the government’s announcement, Mahto, Rahul Kranti, Umme Habiba and three other student leaders called off their hunger strike. Mahto ended his fast at Sadar Hospital in the presence of Jharkhand Ministers Dipika Pandey Singh and Irfan Ansari.
However, the protest is not expected to end immediately, as students continue to demand a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged examination irregularities.
The demand for a CBI inquiry has remained one of the key issues raised by the protesters since the beginning of the agitation.
Soren said the government was serious about the concerns raised by the students and had already accepted several of their demands.
“For the last 24 days, students have been agitating. The minister's panel has attempted to address the issues of protestors,” he said.
The government’s decision to cancel the examinations and order a CID investigation into TDPL’s activities since 2014 marks a major development in the ongoing recruitment examination controversy in Jharkhand.