In response to the protests by the job aspirants, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren announced a review of government recruitment examinations in the state, including the cancellation of all three examinations and appointments linked to an outsourced agency.
The Jharkhand cabinet has decided to cancel examinations conducted since 2014 by TSR Data Processing Limited, Chief Minister Soren said. TDPL is the private agency that has conducted exams including 14th JPSC civil services prelims examination, besides two civil services backlog examinations.
So far , 21 individuals inclduing former JPSC chairman L Khiangte, besides directors and executives of TDPL and other middlemen for irregularities in connection with the JPSC exams. The probe has led to involvement of TDPL syndicate in the JSSC CGL exam as well.The decision now to extends to the Jharkhand Public Service Commision, and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission CGL examination for which the students have been protesting for the past 24 days.
The announcement came hours after party ally and leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to Hemant Soren urging him to meet the students and hear them.
The five key announcements made by the CM are
- All examination and recruitment linked to TDPL will be cancelled.
- JPSC and JSSC, CGL examinations will also be cancelled.
- A special committee for reforms will be formed under the chairmanship of IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal.
- The CID will probe all exams held in Jharkhand since 2014. Big or small, all mistakes that have occurred will be investigated.
- The Jharkhand government has also decided to introduce strong legislation to take decisions in regards to the student protests.
However, despite the announcement, the students association said that the agitation will continue till their demand for CBI probe is accepted.”The demand for a CBI investigation has not yet been accepted, and until the demand for a CBI probe is met, we will continue our movement,” Ravindra Prasad said. “We have won a major battle, but there’s still more to this… We want to thank the Chief Minister for finally hearing our demand after 24 days, but the question remains that until there is a CBI investigation, we will continue our hunger strike” he added.