The Gujarat government’s competitive examination for the recruitment of junior clerks was cancelled hours before it was scheduled on Sunday morning over its question paper leak. The police detained a suspect from Vadodara’s Atladara area Saturday night.
Shortly after, an ATS-SOG team left for Hyderabad to investigate deeper into the incident. The question papers of the Junior Clerk exam were given for printing at Hyderabad and it suspected that the leak occurred at origin point. As many as 9.5 lakh candidates had registered for the exam for 1,181 posts which was to be held at 2,995 centres across the state.
Based on a tip-off, police detained a suspect and recovered a copy of the question paper of the exam early Sunday morning, after which the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board decided to “postpone” the exam in the wider interest of the candidates, the board said in a statement.
“The junior clerk (administrative/accounting) exam was to be conducted in different districts between 11 am and 12 noon on January 29. As per the information received from the police early Sunday morning, they detained a suspect and upon his interrogation seized a copy of the question paper from his possession,” the board said in the statement.
The Board expressed regret for the inconvenience caused. In addition, an announcement was made, to send back home those candidates who had already arrived to the assigned centre, free of cost. “Free travel in state-owned buses has been announced for all the candidates across Gujarat. Candidates need to show their ID cards and hall ticket to avail of free travel to their hometown free of cost,” stated a government declaration.
“The examination will be conducted afresh at the earliest, for which the board will issue a new advertisement,” read the notification. Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi claimed this was the 15th government competitive exam which was cancelled in the last 12 years because of question paper leak.
“The government claims to be taking strict action, but the main culprits have not even been arrested. The government is playing with the future of youth of the state,” he alleged. He further claimed the exam, for which the first advertisement was issued in 2016, was cancelled for the third time.
Gujarat Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Isudan Gadhvi took to Twitter to target the ruling BJP government over the paper leak issue. The BJP government had faced strong opposition from the Congress and the AAP over the issue ahead of the state Assembly elections held last month. It may be recalled that during the poll campaigning in the state, AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal had even promised to bring a strict law against exam papers leak with a provision of ten-year jail term.
Unfortunately, paper leaks have become a common phenomenon in Gujarat. Have a look at major paper leaks in the State since 2014:
- 2014 GPSC Chief officer
- 2015 Talati paper
- 2016 Talati Surendranagar and Gandhinagar
- 2018 TAT exams
- 2018 November: Mukhya Sevika
- 2018 Nayab Chitnis
- 2018 Dec LRD
- 2019: Non-Sachivalaya Clerks
- 2021: Head Clerk (85,000 candidates)
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