India, July 28 -- Congress MPs from Punjab protested at Parliament, while other Opposition parties sought the resignation of Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains over the unravelling of a cheating racket in an exam to recruit pharmacy officers. MPs Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Amar Singh, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, and Sher Singh Ghubaya protested outside Parliament, seeking accountability from the AAP government. The Akali Dal demanded an impartial probe into the matter. On July 19, Punjab Police dismantled a highly sophisticated, inter-state cheating racket that was active during Sunday's pharmacy officer exam.
The police arrested seven key conspirators and detained 28 candidates in connection with the matter. Twenty-seven battery-operated wireless cheating devices were recovered in the process. Among the gadgets seized were pen cameras and real-time dictation tools. Nearly 7,000 candidates appeared for 454 pharmacy officer posts across 25 exam centres in Faridkot, Kotkapura, and Ferozepur, in an exam conducted by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences on behalf of the state Health and Family Welfare Department. Police investigation indicated that there was no leak of paper and no involvement of any official authority.
Opposition parties also alleged that papers were leaked in Punjab in Naib Tehsildar exam, the PSEB class 12 English exam, the Agriculture Development Officers exam, and the Subordinate Services Selection Board Group B Officers exam. On Sunday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asserted that there has not been a single case of paper leak of a competitive exam in the four-and-a-half years of the AAP rule in the state. At the protest in Delhi, Warring, the Punjab Congress president, accused Mann of lying by claiming that no paper was leaked under his watch. "Six paper leaks have taken place during the last four and a half years, and still the chief minister had the audacity to deny it all," alleged Warring.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.