As aspirants of state civil services examinations have refused to withdraw their agitation, an elderly labourer woman Paro Devi too has joined the agitation.
A resident of Itki of Ranchi, she joined the sit-in demonstration as well as the protest march to demand the government to cancel the Preliminary Test (PT) result of the combined 7th civil service examination.The examination conducted by Jharkhand Public Service Commission has courted controversy as students alleged large-scale malpractices in the result.
Paro Devi said her daughter Lakshmi too had appeared in the examination and she had scored 230 marks. But despite that, she could not pass the PT.
Paro Devi said that the family survives through farming and she also does odd jobs to run the family and to arrange money for the education of her three children.
“I always dreamed of my daughter becoming an officer. I toil for the good future of my children. My daughter was crying when the result was declared. She is very laborious and intelligent. Later on, she told me that JPSC sold all seats and rejected deserving candidates,” she said.
“How can someone do this? This is just like government staff demand Rs 10000 to sanction you a house under Indira Gandhi housing Project. How will the poor survive?” she said.She may be unlettered and uneducated but she is concerned about the education of her children. While Lakshmi is preparing for the civil services, her son is pursuing graduation whereas another is pursuing an engineering course.
Lakshmi too was very sad and upset over the result. “My parents are poor. They can’t afford medicines for them but they are happily suffering so that we get the education and a job,” she said.
Thousands of JPSC aspirants have joined agitation and they have vowed to fight till the JPSC cancels the result and the government orders inquiry into alleged merit scam.A delegation of aspirants had also met Governor Ramesh Bais and requested him to order an inquiry into the alleged corruption. They alleged that corruption is so glaring that a candidate of the general category who secured 148 marks was declared successful in the preliminary test. But at the same time, another candidate who secured 260 marks was declared a failure.
A total of 4293 students were declared successful for the preliminary examination. Out of this, 242 such candidates have their roll number in a serial. They are from different examination centers in Lohardaga, Sahebganj, Latehar, and Gumla. The JPSC announced a combined civil service examination comprising seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth JPSC for 252 seats.