- Students in Jharkhand suspended their 26-day protest on exam irregularities
- They gave the state government a two-month ultimatum to resolve the issues
- State cancelled 22 recruitment exams and ordered probe into 23 others since 2014
Students in Jharkhand protesting against the alleged irregularities in recruitment exams suspended their 26-day agitation today and gave the state government a 2-month ultimatum to resolve the issues.
"We are now suspending the stir and giving a two-month ultimatum to the government to resolve the issues and conduct a fair probe into recruitment exam irregularities," said a leader of the JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch.
The development comes a day after the state government issued notifications cancelling 22 recruitment exams and ordering a probe into 23 others conducted by the state public service commission and an outsourced agency since 2014.
Several job aspirants have been staging a sit-in protest in Ranchi, demanding a probe into the alleged irregularities in the 14th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) Civil Services Examination, the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination and other recruitment tests.
The Manch, which led the students' agitation said three protesters - Rupesh Kumar Pal, Savita Kumari, Rahul Kranti - ended their 15-day fast on Wednesday, news agency PTI reported.
"We urge Chief Minister Hemant Soren to initiate stringent measures to check recurrence of job exam irregularities," Manch Spokesperson Piyush Kumar Singh said, while demanding the withdrawal of FIRs against protesters of the August 10 march to the assembly as well as the reinstatement of whistleblower of job exam anomalies Santosh Kumar Mastana to the finance department.
Student leader Devendra Nath Mahato called off his hunger strike on Tuesday after meeting ministers and MLAs who came to visit him at Ranchi's Sadar Hospital.
Thanking the government, he said the ongoing probe was targeting those involved in examination irregularities. The students, he added, will continue to support efforts to remove corruption from the examination system and will cooperate with the government in the ongoing reform process.
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