Bhubaneswar: Protesting selection of a blacklisted company to conduct examinations to recruit police personnel and staff in the state pollution control board, youth and student members of the Congress Wednesday tried to gherao Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s official residence here.
Recruitment tests for sub-inspectors (SI) in the police force and employees in the state pollution control board are supposed to be held soon.
Holding banners, posters and party flags, several members from the Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student unit of Congress, marched towards the chief minister’s residence, located here at lower PMG Road.
A scuffle broke out between the police personnel and Congress workers after they tried to march ahead by breaking barricades.
The police detained several Congress supporters following the scuffle.
Speaking to media persons, Youth Congress state president Ranjit Patra alleged that the state government has engaged a blacklisted company for conducting the examinations for recruitment of SI of police and some posts in the state pollution control board (SPCB). The recruitment examinations will be held soon, he said.
We demand that the state government remove the company concerned from the job and engage another firm in its place to conduct the recruitment tests transparently, Patra said.
Yashir Nawaz, another Youth Congress leader, said, The Mohan Majhi government has engaged a Gujarat-based company to conduct two important examinations,
The firm’s top officer was sent to jail for six months for manipulating an online entrance examination of BITS Pilani in 2019. Again, he was jailed for nine months for malpractice in conducting the Gujarat Public Service Selection Board (GPSSB) in 2022, Nawaz alleged.
Five months ago, the same company was responsible for leaking the question paper of an examination in New Delhi, he alleged.
Why did the Odisha government engage such a company for the recruitment tests? It seems the government has opened shops to sell government jobs by depriving talented and meritorious students of their rights, Nawaz alleged.
PTI
