Members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) on June 19, staged a strong protest and attempted a Gherao of the Chief Minister (CM) house over alleged bribery and nepotism in Chhattisgarh State Public service examination held in 2021.
Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including the former CM Raman Singh and party state president Arun Sao were also in attendance at the protest rally held near Sapre Chowk in the state’s capital Raipur, following which BJYM members led by their national president Tejaswi Surya marched towards the CM house.
The Yuva Morcha members met solid resistance from the police personnel deployed to thwart any such attempts from the BJYM workers. It’s been learnt that hundreds of BJYM members were also detained during the scuffle and were later released by the police. In a video of the protest posted by the state BJP president Arun Sao, the youth wing workers of the saffron party can be seen attempting to cross over the tin-sheets barricades put by the Raipur police.
https://twitter.com/ArunSao3/status/1670777824087797760?s=19
Earlier, while addressing a gathering, firebrand youth leader and BJYM president Tejaswi Surya promised to initiate a CBI enquiry into the alleged scam if voted to power in the tribal-dominated state.
“I have been through many states, every state has its state public service commission, and every commission follows transparency in the selection of the candidates; however, the way candidates have been selected by the Chhattisgarh public service commission (CGPSC) in the last 3-4 years, I can say with all the seriousness and belief that none of the state public service commissions is as corrupt as the CGPSC, ” said the BJP lawmaker from Karnataka.
“He further quoted that “if the BJP voted to power in the upcoming state assembly election (scheduled to be held in 2023), we will initiate a CBI enquiry into the matter and will act on the promises made by us from day one.” Earlier, Tejaswi Surya also interacted with the state’s psc aspirants in Nalanda Bhawan Parisar and invited them to join the protest.
https://twitter.com/BJYMCGState/status/1670724983067389952?t=2i7jCRhQjN5Cz9215AuUQQ&s=19
Meanwhile, addressing the gathering, former CM Raman Singh, while lashing out at the Baghel-led congress government of the state, said that ” the CM Baghel has handed over the rights of the youth to the congress-minded officials of the state that is the reason why the youth of the state have arrived at his doorstep, only a few days remain left of this government.”
The BJP State President Arun Sao, while speaking at the protest rally, also slammed the state government over alleged nepotism and fraud in the selection process. Addressing the gathering, the BJP state chief said that this is not about getting votes and power but about the future of our youths, their self-respect and the dreams of thousands of parents who want their sons and daughters to succeed.
Meanwhile, speaking with the Organiser representative, Ravi Bhagat, state president of the BJYM, said, “Many karyakartas have been injured in the lathi charge commenced by the police while around thousands of them have been detained, but we can assure you that we will not stop. So far, we have only been able to dig about the top 20 selected candidates where relatives of officials and leaders have found a place. You tell me if someone alleges the commission for fraud and bribery, they should keep every record secure, but they are in a hurry to dispose of the documents. It’s nothing but a vivid sign of fraud in the examination.”
After the protest and the attempted Gherao BJYM Chhattisgarh demanded that the 2021 PSC Examination be re-conducted, and a high-level committee investigate the 2021 PSC examination. The youth wing of the opposition in the state also sought immediate suspension of the PSC chairman, secretary and examination controller.
It is to be noted that the state’s public service commission has been on the receiving end after it declared the list of successful candidates for CGPSC 2021 in April this year. The list includes relatives of a few congress leaders, senior bureaucrats, and seasoned businessmen. The list also includes one ‘Nitesh’ whose surname has also been kept hidden; he is said to be the adopted son of the Commission’s Chairman, Tamam Sonwani.
It is pertinent to mention here that after the declaration of the results, an anonymous viral post by an unknown PSC aspirant stormed the state’s political galleries after the aspirants made serious allegations about the selection process of the candidates and claimed that a couple of drug addicts also got selected in the examination.
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Adding fuel to the fire, the state’s public service commission last month also issued a notification for the disposal of old irrelevant question papers and OMR sheets used in the previous year’s examinations triggering another protest from the BJP leaders.
After the notification issued by the commission, a few BJP leaders also alleged that the notification issued by the CGPSC is nothing but a desperate move of the chairman to come clean on the records, who is awaiting his retirement in the coming months.
While raising concerns over the development, senior BJP leader from the state, Gaurishankar Srivas, while taking to Twitter, shared a letter that he wrote to the State’s PSC to cancel the tender process.
In the letter to the PSC chairman, Srivas, while citing the ongoing protest of the students over 2021 results declared by the commission, had urged that any such step to dispose of the documents about the exams will not only tarnish the image of the commission but will also hamper the trust of the students. He further urged that any attempt to dispose of any documents before a thorough enquiry into the matter will embolden the doubts raised
