The Gujarat government cancelled the competitive exam for the recruitment of junior clerks hours before its scheduled time on Sunday after the Police found the question paper was leaked by an organised gang from a multiple coaching centres in Vadodara and Ahmedabad.
The Gujarat unit of Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested 16 persons in connection with the paper leak for the post of junior clerks in Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board (GPSSB), including two who were earlier caught by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2019 for manipulating the online entrance exam of BITS, Pilani.
Among those arrested including the alleged mastermind, Pradip Naik, who worked at a printing press in Hyderabad where the exam paper was sent for printing. Others include seven persons from Bihar who were working in Gujarat in coaching centres.
“We have arrested 16 persons and probing the role of others in Gujarat and other States,” ATS officials told mediapersons on Sunday evening.
As many as 9.5 lakh candidates had registered for the exam for 1,181 posts which was to be held at 2,995 centres across the state.
This is for the third time since 2017, the exam to recruit junior clerks has been cancelled due to exam paper leak or compromised recruitment process since 2017. Earlier, the exam was scrapped in 2018 and then in 2019.
Sunday’s episode is a latest in the string of recruitment exam paper leaks that the Gujarat government has been facing for a decade now. Since 2013, more than 15 instances have occurred in which different recruitment exams for government posts were cancelled following the complaints of rigging or paper leak.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Gujarat ATS and the Surat Police detained a suspect and recovered a copy of the question paper of the exam early on Sunday morning after which the GPSSB decided to cancel the exam in the :wider interest of the candidates”, the Board said in a statement on Sunday.
The board will now reschedule the exam and inform the candidates.
“The junior clerk (administrative/accounting) exam was to be conducted in different districts between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. on January 29. As per the information received from the police early on Sunday morning, they detained a suspect and upon his interrogation seized a copy of the question paper from his possession.”
Lakhs of candidates from villages and far-flung areas had already arrived at the exam centres across the State. The Board told the candidates to not go to the centre and new date will be announced in a few days.
The State government has also announced that those candidates travelling by the State transport busses will not be charged the fare on production of the exam entry card.
The paper leak episode brought the Gujarat government’s recruitment agencies under the spotlight as despite repeated instances of rigging or paper leaks, the state agencies have not been able to create a foolproof system to conduct the competitive exams.
Both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders slammed the BJP-ruled State government for “playing with the future of youth”.
“This goes to once again show how incompetent the state administration in Gujarat is. This exam, they have not been able to conduct since 2017,” said Congress spokesperson Dr. Manish Doshi.
“Almost every exam in Guj(arat) gets leaked. Why? The future of crores of youth is ruined,” asked Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in a tweet.
