RANCHI: Hours after the state government cancelled 22 JPSC and JSSC examinations linked to TDPL and ordered a CID probe into 23 other examinations through a notification issued late Tuesday night, the JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch, whose members had been protesting alleged irregularities in the examinations, postponed its agitation for two months.
The JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch on Wednesday announced the temporary suspension of its agitation, which had been continuing for the past 26 days.
Declaring that the agitation had been postponed, Manch leader Ravindra Paswan granted the government a two-month window to fulfil all its demands.
At a press conference held at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium at 4 pm, the students claimed that Chief Minister Hemant Soren had been compelled to acknowledge their struggle and their demand for reforms. They said the government's decision to cancel several examinations was a direct result of the struggle waged by the youth of Jharkhand.
The Manch said it would closely monitor the government's actions over the next two months.
“If concrete action is not taken on all demands within this period, the agitation will resume—and this time, it will be even larger in scale,” Paswan said.
The students said the government had accepted their demand for the cancellation of several examinations. They attributed the cancellations to the sustained 26-day protest by the youth of Jharkhand.
Students belonging to the JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch said the government had cancelled 22 examinations. However, they maintained that their demands had not yet been fully met.
The forum had also demanded the cancellation of other examinations, including those for PGT, municipal services, excise constables and secondary school teachers (Madhyamik Acharya). The students appealed to the government to cancel examinations that had not yet been scrapped but were allegedly marred by irregularities.
The students said Congress MLAs Deepika Pandey Singh and Dr Irfan Ansari had visited the protest site during the agitation. Minister Ansari requested a two-month window, stating that action would be taken against the “exam mafia” and efforts would be made to eliminate such malpractice during this period.
Following the minister's appeal and the government's action on several demands, the JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch decided to suspend the protest for two months. The students said they were giving the government this period to fulfil all their demands.
They warned that if, after two months, they felt the government was not acting in their interest or had failed to take the expected action on their demands, the agitation would resume.
The students warned that any future protest would be even larger and more widespread.
Announcing the suspension, rather than the termination, of the protest, the students thanked the media, the administration and everyone who had supported them, either directly or indirectly. The forum also thanked all political parties, including those from both the ruling and opposition camps, for their support.
The students emphasised that their struggle was not tied to any single individual or organisation, but was a movement representing the youth of Jharkhand and their demand for transparency in competitive examinations.