No evidence of paper leak in BPSC exam: Bihar minister

Patna: Amid the stalemate over demand for cancellation of a recent competitive exam in Bihar, a close aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday asserted that it has received no evidence, so far, of question paper leak.

The averment came from Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, one of the senior-most ministers in the state cabinet, a day after the chief secretary spoke to a delegation of protesters, in a gesture aimed at breaking the deadlock.

Speaking to reporters, Chaudhary said, "The government could not have acted with greater clarity. The top official gave a patient hearing to the aggrieved party. But, to my information, no evidence of question paper leak has been furnished so far." "So, as of now, we hold that there has been no paper leak. This is also the stand of the public service commission. One examination centre had witnessed some disturbances and a re-examination has been ordered for the candidates who were affected," the minister said.

"But obviously, there was a conspiracy. Rumours of question paper leak were spread, but nobody knew where was it leaked, and to whom. Those behind this played with the future of young students. They must be unmasked," he said.

The minister's statement was in line with the stand taken by the BPSC over the matter.

The Combined Competitive Exams were held on December 13 when hundreds, all of them at the Bapu Pariksha Parisar in the state capital, boycotted the test alleging that the question paper had been leaked.

The commission has since ordered a re-examination for over 10,000 candidates who have been asked to appear for fresh test at different centres in the city on January 4.

However, the commission has also held the view that the exam was held properly at the remaining 911 centres across Bihar with no complaints from over five lakh candidates.

But, a section of aspirants have launched an agitation, holding that re-examination must be ordered for all the centres to ensure "level playing field".

The stir, which comes less than a year ahead of assembly polls, has received support from all political players opposed to the state's ruling NDA, including Jan Suraaj Party founded by Prashant Kishor, who has been labelled as "the government's B team" by the main opposition party RJD.

Kishor, who had on Sunday led a demonstration that ended in crackdown by police, has urged the protesters to hold their horses till January 1 and resume their agitation if the government fails to come up with a positive response.

Meanwhile, leaders of the CPI(ML) Liberation attempted a 'Raj Bhavan march', only to be thwarted by police well ahead of the high-security area where the governor resides.

The Left party was joined in the procession by allies, Congress, CPI and CPI(M).

In a statement, the CPI(ML)-L alleged police "misbehaved" with those taking part in the procession, including Sudama Prasad, the sitting MP from Arrah, and MLC Shashi Yadav.

Later, the party added, "Upon a proposal received from the Raj Bhavan, a memorandum was submitted to the governor's principal secretary Robert L Chongthu by a five-member delegation." Demands raised in the memorandum included inquiry into the alleged paper leak and action against officials who may have been responsible for the same.

The delegation included legislative party leaders Mehboob Alam (CPI-ML), Shakil Ahmed Khan (Congress), Ram Ratan Singh (CPI) and Ajay Kumar (CPI-M).