Vadodara: The Gujarat ATS team demanded 14 days of custody for the 15 arrested persons, who were involved in the question paper leak of the Gujarat government's competitive examination for the recruitment of junior clerks, and the exam, which was scheduled for Sunday, was called off at the last moment. As many as 9.5 lakh candidates had registered for the exam for 1,181 posts, which were to be conducted at 2,995 centres across the state.
The Gujarat ATS has demanded 14 days remand from the court, but the court has granted remand for 12 days i.e; till February 10. Police registered a case and arrested more than 10 accused. Based on a tip-off, the 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 police were investigating the matter, it said.
"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 to the candidates and informed them not to go to the examination centres. "The examination will be conducted afresh at the earliest, for which the board will issue a new advertisement," it said. Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi claimed this was the 15th government competitive exam, which was cancelled in the last 12 years because of a question paper leak.
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"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 the youth of the state," he alleged. Doshi 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 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state over the paper leak issue.
It is learned that the paper was leaked from a printing press in Hyderabad. The examinees, who appeared at the Junagadh examination centre, vented their ire at the government's examination system. There is anger among the students over the cancellation of the examination. Gujarat had been marred by several cases of competitive exam question papers leak that led to widespread agitation by the youth in the state.
The BJP government had faced strong opposition from Congress and the AAP over the issue ahead of the state Assembly elections held last month. During the poll campaigning in the state, AAP's national convener Arvind Kejriwal had even promised to bring a strict law against exam paper leaks with a provision of a 10 years jail term.
Meanwhile, after the cancellation of the Junior Clerk exam, now the government has come into action mode. Now the Panchayat department has said to declare the new date of re-examination in the next 100 days. It has also been decided by the board that for the next examination, the candidates will be able to travel free of cost in Gujarat ST bus to and fro the examination centres based on their identity card.
