Ahmedabad/New Delhi: It was the last Sunday of January and 9.5 lakh candidates in Gujarat were gearing up to battle it out for 1,181 seats to become panchayat junior clerks – a job that promised a salary Rs 19,950, Among them was 22-year-old Manav Solanki of Rajkot. He was ready to appear for the exam at 11 am.
But around 7 am, he got a call that the exam had been canceled – the question paper had been leaked.
Since then, the Gujarat Panchayat Services Selection Board (GPSSB), which is responsible for conducting the competitive examination, is trying to conduct the recruitment examination again. The exam has been rescheduled for April 9.
It is not only the Panchayat Clerk exam that has been affected by the paper leak. Exam paper leaks have become an epidemic in Gujarat, with 11 paper leaks in 11 years, discouraging thousands of young job aspirants. Unofficial numbers claim that the number is even higher. This underlines the passion for government jobs in a state known for private sector growth.
The board is hopeful that by the time the second exam will be held, they will be equipped with brand new Law It seeks to deter those involved in the “organised crime” of paper leaks with a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine of less than Rs 1 crore.
The Gujarat Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2023 was swiftly passed in the state assembly last month and state governor Acharya Devvrat gave his assent to it on March 8.
However, the new law hasn’t pacified people like Solanki, who are struggling to prepare for the exam.
He says, ‘One needs to be mentally calm, only then preparation is possible.’
He is dismayed at how some government service exams are given more attention than others and their sanctity remains intact.
He questions how the exams conducted by the Gujarat Public Service Commission are safe from paper leaks, but the same does not apply to the GPSSB and the Gujarat Subordinate Services Selection Board (GSSSB).
Solanki’s father Anand Bhai describes the paper leak incidents as a “conspiracy” rather than the result of government oversight. They too have high hopes from the new law.
“We can only say how effective it is when one is incarcerated,” he says
A sinister ‘methodology’?
According to SP Sunil Joshi, by February, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), probing the junior clerk exam paper leak, had arrested 19 accused in the case.
Joshi explains how one of the accused obtained the paper from Hyderabad where it was being printed and leaked it – it was an inter-state operation.
“There are also organized gang members from Bihar and Odisha who find agents in Gujarat. Then there are education consultants in Gujarat, attached to various exam centres, who reach out to students,” says Joshi, breaking down the nexus of crime leading to a leak.
The accused caught by ATS include Ketan Barot and Bhaskar Chowdhary, both part of education consulting firms in the state. He was earlier arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2019 on charges of rigging the BITS, Pilani online entrance exam.
Gujarat AAP leader Yuvraj Singh Jadeja, who claims to be waging a war against this menace in the state, alleges that these repeat offenders have been able to continue their operations because of bureaucratic support. They claim that the paper reaches students because of political involvement.
“A leader will back that candidate [the one who gets the leaked paper]And will ensure that nothing happens to him,” he claims, adding that the question paper for the junior clerical exam was sold for Rs 12 lakh.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi termed the paper leak as the “methodology” of the BJP government to recruit its “own people”.
Jadeja meets this allegation by explaining the dual “advantage” of such incidents. He claims, “One, it will bring its own people into the system and the government’s responsibility to pay salaries if the exam is delayed because the leak is exposed.”
While Jadeja welcomes the new law, he doubts whether it will help end the problem. He underlined that a paper has to be leaked for the law to be effective. They fear that if someone is caught with a leaked answer key in the exam hall, it will be dismissed as cheating and not a paper leak case.
He is worried about poor implementation. He gives the example of Gujarat’s prohibition laws, “There is no road where liquor is not available. The success of the law depends on how it is implemented and what kind of action is taken.
Read also: Gujarat is anything but a dry state. Decriminalize liquor, use tax revenue for development
People are turning away from government jobs
Frequent paper leaks discourage young job aspirants and also make them cynical.
“Nothing will come out of the new bill”, says 22-year-old Ankit Kumar. He was all set to take the junior clerk exam in January and had spent a year studying for it. But now he is not preparing dedicatedly for the rescheduled exam.
This is the third time he had signed up for any competitive exam but could not reach the finish line.
Now, Kumar has completely changed his career plans. He can’t afford to waste any more years – even with the new law.
“I did my BA so that I could do coaching and simultaneously prepare for government exams. But with the government job sector changing in this way, I am focused on getting my LLB degree and aiming for a private job,” says Kumar.
(Editing by Therese Sudip)