A delegation of protesting students held talks with the Jharkhand government on Saturday amid massive agitation over alleged recruitment exam paper leaks. However, the talks failed to break the deadlock, as the students decided to continue their strike until all demands are met.
Including three ministers, a five-member government panel first met a protester faction led by JLKM leader Devendra Nath Mahto—currently on the seventh day of a hunger strike for exam reforms. They later engaged with delegations from the Congress-backed NSUI, ACS, and JCM.
After the meeting, Higher and Technical Education Minister Sudivya Kumar Sonu told reporters that the state has released a dedicated email ID, jpsc.jssc.feedback@gmail.com, to collect suggestions from students and stakeholders for policy reforms. "The government is committed to engaging with all student groups to reach a collective decision," she said.
The ruling JMM's students' wing Jharkhand Chhatra Morcha (JCM) placed five demands before the government panel, including the cancellation of the 14th Jharkhand PSC Civil Services Examination.
Meanwhile, the NSUI placed six demands before the government, including a CID probe into all JPSC and JSSC examinations under doubt within 90 days and the setting up of Jharkhand Testing Agency (JTA) on the lines of the National Testing Agency, its spokesperson Sanjiv Shah said.
On Friday night, the government had held similar talks with a 10-member delegation of the JPSC/JSSC Reforms Manch.
"Demands of protesting aspirants are genuine; we will place these before Chief Minister Hemant Soren," state minister Sanjay Prasad Yadav, who is a member of the panel set up by the government, said after the back-to-back meetings.
The government panel's first meeting was with Mahto's grouping, JPSC JSSC Candidates' Forum, and it lasted around two hours.
"The government assured us of a quick decision to resolve the issues raised by us. However, our protests will continue until all our demands, including cancellation of the 14th JPSC exam, are met," a leader of the forum said.
According to state minister Dipika Pandey Singh, the talks were held in a positive atmosphere and recruitment discrepancies explained by students will be resolved soon.
The protest over the paper leaks entered its 15th day on Saturday.
"We have been demanding immediate cancellation of the 14th Jharkhand PSC Civil Services Examination, and all exams conducted by that agency," Mahto told PTI.
He said since the students have been protesting peacefully for over two weeks, the state government should fulfil their demands immediately.
"They should not procrastinate on it. How the government responds to the demands will be interesting to see. If the government had fulfilled the demands on Friday after the talks they held with the 10-member delegation of students, there would be no need for the meeting today, because our demands are almost the same," Mahto said.
"My health condition is deteriorating day by day. Blood pressure and sugar levels are dropping. The doctor informed me about a chest infection and advised hospital admission. If these conditions continue, it will be dangerous for me. I am only able to listen, think, and speak slowly," he added.
So far, 19 people have been arrested in connection with irregularities in the JPSC exams.
