The Gujarat government cancelled the competitive examination for the recruitment of junior clerks, hours before it was scheduled on Sunday after its question paper was leaked.
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist (ATS) has arrested 15 people in this connection.
As many as 9.53 lakh candidates registered for the exam for 1,181 posts which was to be conducted from 11 am by the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board (GPSSB) at 2,995 centres across the state.
This is for the third time, the exam to recruit junior clerks has been cancelled owing to exam paper leak or compromised recruitment process.
Based on a tip-off, police detained a suspect and recovered a copy of the question paper of the exam early Sunday morning, after which the GPSSB decided to postpone the exam in the wider interest of the candidates, the board said in a statement.
State Panchayat Department’s development commissioner Sandeep Kumar told reporters that the examination will be held in the next 100 days.
“The Gujarat ATS from the past four days has been keeping a tight vigil from the last three to four days to ensure that the exam is held in a fair and transparent way. On Saturday we caught a gang of 15 people with the leaked paper. It is a very organized gang with their network spread in various states. When the government came to know that the paper has been leaked, they decided to cancel the exams keeping in view the future of lakhs of candidates,” according to a Gujarat ATS official.
The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party hit out at the ruling BJP government in Gujarat for the paper leak.
Amit Chavda, leader of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) sought the resignation of the concerned minister and the arrest of all those responsible for the paper leak. Congress national spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said that in the last one decade, there have been as many as twenty-two exam paper leaks in Gujarat.
Gujarat Congress working president Jignesh Mevani sought the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) led by honest police officers to probe the matter.
Gujarat AAP president Isudan Gadhvi sought a probe by a retired high court judge. “People of Gujarat have put their faith in BJP by giving them 156 seats. And what has the BJP given to the people? A long list of paper leaks?”