Several protesting Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) aspirants and a BJP legislator were lathi-charged by police at Morhabadi on Tuesday while they were marching towards the JPSC building for a dialogue with the chairman of the public service commission over alleged anomalies in the recently conducted exams.
BJP legislator from Bhawanathpur, Bhanu Pratap Shahi accused police personnel of using batons against him and manhandling him without considering the fact that he was a public representative.
“They caught a public representative by his caller and manhandled me. It was a peaceful protest, and using lathis to disperse a group of students was unwarranted,†said Shahi.
Several thousand JPSC aspirants have been demanding cancellation of the recently conducted preliminary tests for JPSC 7 to 10 citing favouritism and anomalies in the system. The students have alleged that the JPSC has not issued a cut-off for the recently held exams, and demanded reexamination.
However, the JPSC agreed to release cut-off marks and marks of all the aspirants in public domain after a meeting with 12 student representatives and three legislators, said Shahi. “JPSC chairperson Amitabh Chaudhary has assured necessary scrutiny in the matter in the next four days,†Shahi added.
The protesting aspirants have alleged that several aspirants whose roll numbers fell in sequence cleared the tests, while no aspirant under the specially-abled category made it to the list of successful candidates. Besides, some aspirants did not clear the exam despite scoring more than other candidates who cleared the test, the aspirants said.
The ongoing protests by JPSC aspirants have gained political attention lately, with BJP and AJSU-Party legislators extending their support to the protesting students. The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has accused the BJP of orchestrating protests by students for political gains.
BJP legislator Naveen Jaiswal, who also attended the meeting with the JPSC chairperson on Tuesday, said that the government should at least have a dialogue with students and listen to their concerns.
“Such anomalies were expected the moment relatives and friends of JMM and Congress leaders were given power in the JPSC. This is clearly an attempt by the government to sell JPSC seats and encourage favouritism,†said Jaiswal.
JPSC exams have been riddled with controversies since 2016. The prelims test for JPSC 6 was conducted way back on December 18, 2016, and its result was declared in February 2017.
On June 7, 2021, The Jharkhand High Court cancelled the merit list of the 6th JPSC after years of protests by aspirants. The court also directed the state government to identify the officials responsible for the mistake in the merit list and take action against them.
