Lucknow: Following a massive protest, the Uttar Pradesh government on February 24 canceled the UP Police Constable Recruitment Exam 2024 — which were held on February 17 and 18 across the state — following reports of paper leaks.
Announcing the cancellation barely a week after it was conducted, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “The directions have been issued to cancel the Constable exam and hold a re-exam within the next six months, no compromise can be made with the welfare of the students.” (sic)
Around 48 lakh students appeared in the examination against the 67,000 vacancies notified by the government.
However, the decision with regard to the cancelation of the examination came late for the family of Brajesh Pal — a 25-year-old youth from Kannauj, who committed suicide after news of the paper leaks surfaced.
Thousands of aggrieved aspirants gathered at Lucknow’s Kanshiram Eco Garden — demanding re-examination. They claimed to have ample proof of the alleged leak of the question paper before the examination began.
Initially denying the allegation, the UP Police Recruitment Board — as a result of the uproar — ordered an inquiry and sought evidence from the candidates to proceed with the probe.
An FIR in connection was filed at the Krishna Nagar Police Station based on the complaint of one Ram Babu Singh, a police constable with the state who alleged that the paper has been “leaked in a planned manner”.
The FIR alleges that the police found a paper at the table of a candidate, Aman Kumar, which had answers. The answers that were mentioned on the seized paper serial wise, the complaint stated, were matched with their corresponding questions asked in the original examination question paper.
The government’s decision appears to have comforted the protesting students, who included aspirants from across the state.
Abhishek Vishwakarma from Azamgarh said that he was happy as the government agreed to accept their demand.
“I had gone to Varanasi to appear in the examination. When I came back home, I learnt about the paper leak. I was extremely disappointed. I am happy now because our protest yielded results and brought the government to its knees,” he told The Mooknayak, hoping for a fair examination when it takes place again.
Another candidate who was from Prayagraj, Abhishek Pal, who wrote the examination on February 17, demanded strict action against those who are found guilty.
“The government must ensure that such an incident does not happen again,” he said.
Not only the students but teachers were equally happy with the decision pertaining to cancellation of the examination.
Sanjiv Kumar, who runs preparatory coaching classes at Firozabad, alleged, “The examinations were held in a haste, denying the students enough time for preparations.”
He pointed out that the aspirants were allotted their home centres for the examination and that it facilitated the paper leak.
“I would urge the administration to allot centres at least 100-200 kilometres away from home towns of the candidates to ensure lower probability of such paper leaks,” he said.
The government was believed to be under pressure after the students staged massive protests and the Opposition too began raising the issue.
Targeting the government over the paper leak, former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, “We are with the movement of the students outside the Allahabad Public Service Commission (UPPSC). Actually, the BJP government does not want to complete any recruitment because after recruitment, they will have to provide jobs and in jobs they will have to provide reservations.” (sic)
Congress Leader Priyanka Vadra Gandhi said, “The Congress had proposed a recruitment legislation to prevent paper leaks and corruption in recruitment examinations.”
Considering the paper leak problem, she demanded a CBI enquiry into the incident and strict action against the perpetrators.
“An examination calendar should be released, mentioning the dates of notification, examination and also the appointment. There should be a strict action if it is not followed or violated,” she said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi welcomed the move. Attributing the decision to the students’ unity and power he said, “The UP Police constable examination has been canceled, and it is a big win for the student’s fraternity and youth power. The message is loud and clear: no matter how much the government tries to suppress, if we struggle with unity, we can win the fight.”
Meanwhile, the allegation of paper leak has also hit the revenue officer (RO) and assistant revenue officer (ARO) recruitment examination — which was conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) on February 11.
Those who appeared in the written test have been staging protest demonstrations outside the UPPSC headquarters in Prayagraj for days, but the government is yet to acknowledge it and address the students’ grievances.
On Friday (February 23), the issue escalated as the students congregated in large numbers at the gate of the Commission, blocked the road and took out a march.
The deputy secretary of the UPPSC tried to pacify the agitated candidates, inviting for talks, but the protesters declined the offer. They said there will be no negotiation on their demand for cancellation of the examination paper as they have already produced evidence in support of their claims.
They alleged that unable to face them and avoid a possible confrontation, the chairman of the Commission exited from the back door.
Such protests are being staged across the state, with RO-ARO aspirants demanding resignation of the Commission’s chairman.
Meanwhile, the allegations are being probed by a Special Task Force of the UP Police, and the UPPSC has sought a report from nodal officers who were deployed at all 2,387 centres where the examination was held.
Following the decision to re-conduct the UP Police Constable Recruitment Examination, the RO-ARO aspirants are hopeful that the government would do justice to them as well as they are also the victim of the alleged paper leak.
Speaking to The Mooknayak, one such candidate, Vijay Maurya, said, “I put all possible effort to crack the examination, but the paper got leaked. I hope the government orders re-examination like it has done in the constable recruitment test.”
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