The clash between Jharkhand government and protesting job aspirants has deepened with the two sides going through a long series of negotiations on Saturday. Despite holding a crucial meeting on the leaked examination paper issue the state administration and the Devendra Nath Mahto-led group of candidates were unable to come to an agreement. And so the aggrieved aspirants are going to continue their noisy protests and insist on their own demands for systemic change. The demonstrators are going all round to the Vidhan Sabha on August 10, but a threat of a massive march to Vidhan Sabha is being made that their problems will not be resolved by the state government.
During Saturday’s discussions, an eight-member delegation of Mahto-led faction had discussions with a five-member government panel. Rama Avatar Mahto, Chandan Kumar, Dinbandhu Mandal, Bimal Kumar, Puja Kumari, Prem Kumar, Ravi Shankar and Amit Kumar Sharma were among those who participated. Dipika Pandey Singh remained optimistic after the meeting and said that the talks were good.
She said the recruitment issue students had highlighted has been resolved and the government will consult with other student organizations like the NSUI, Jharkhand Chhatra Morcha and Adivasi Chhatra Sangha and brief the Chief Minister on the result of these crucial talks.
In an attempt to demonstrate the administration's transparency, Higher and Technical Education Minister Sudivya Kumar introduced a communication channel. The government has established a private email address, [email protected], to make suggestions to the aspirants on the need for the implementation of a change to recruitment strategy. Jharkhand Minister Sanjay Prasad Yadav also expressed a conciliatory attitude towards the students' demands. He said that every student's demands are justified and the panel would directly address them to the Chief Minister to rectify every complaint. Government representatives also met with NSUI, ACS and JCM representatives in parallel to help the students to reach a common ground.
This recent failure follows an unsuccessful first round of talks on Friday, which saw a ten-member delegation from JPSC/JSSC Reforms Manch unable to break through the government panel. The heart of this widespread student movement is a desperate plea for a transparent, corruption-free recruitment ecosystem in the state.
The protesters’ demands are simple enough. They will demand the cancellation of the fourteenth Jharkhand Public Service Commission Civil Services Examination as they say there has been a series of serious, large-scale frauds. They are also demanding an unbiased investigation of the entire recruitment process from the top national agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation or Enforcement Directorate or by an outside court of retired High Court judges from outside the state of Jharkhand. And finally, they require major structural reforms in JPSC and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission to prevent future examinations from getting into trouble.
The situation before the Saturday meeting, prominent leader Devendra Nath Mahto was very frustrated at the slow pace of the administration response of this time, he said. He said the current long-winded talks would have been totally unnecessary if the government had had the patience and taken the requests and made contact with them early on. The protests are all about the same as any other group to the government and that is what they want, he said: they are not individual and must be met. Law enforcement is progressing in their investigation of the alleged recruitment scam. Authorities have arrested nineteen people linked to the irregularities, while the former chairman of the JPSC L Khiangte has been questioned on four occasions since the 28th of July.
