Jharkhand CM accepts students' demands; cancels JSSC-CGL, other exams held by firm at centre of row

After the Cabinet meeting, Soren also ordered a comprehensive inquiry into irregularities in recruitment exams since 2014.

Granting one of the major demands of students protesting against alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations, the Jharkhand government on Monday decided to cancel the JSSC-CGL examination, along with all other recruitment examinations conducted by private firm TDPL, which is under the scanner of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Jharkhand Police.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren accepted students demands, and also ordered a comprehensive inquiry into irregularities in recruitment exams since 2014.

The decision came on the 24th day of the ongoing student protest, with some protesters having been on hunger strike for the past 14 days. It followed a marathon meeting of the Jharkhand Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday.

Making the announcement after the meeting at the state secretariat, Soren said, "There have been some starting reveltations in the ongoing CID and SIT probes. After much of deliberations in the cabinet, it has been decided to cancel the JSSC CGL. All other exams conducted by TDPL will also be cancelled."

TDPL is the private agency that has conducted exams including 14th JPSC civil services prelims examination, besides two civil services backlog examinations. The Combined Graduate Level (CGL) examination was conducted by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) in 2024 and around 1800 succesful candidates have already been appointed in various departments of the state government.

The fresh controversy regarding regarding recruitments exams started with CID regisitering a case on July 22 probing alleged irregularities in the 14th civil services prelims exam conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Examination (JPSC) this year. The agency till now has arrested 21 individuals inclduing former JPSC chairman L Khiangte, besides directors and executives of TDPL and other middlemen for irregularities in connection with the JPSC exams. The probe has led to involvement of TDPL syndicate in the JSSC CGL exam as well.

The job aspirants started their protest soon after and have been holding a sit-in at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium in Ranchi, with some of them also observing a hunger strike. The students marched to the Vidhan Sabha on August 10 and threatened to gherao the Chief Minister’s residence on August 20 if their demands were not met.

While two of their major demands — cancelling all exams conducted by TDPL and the JSSC-CGL examination — have been met, there was no clarity on whether the students would continue to press for their demand for a CBI inquiry.

On probing the irregularities, the CM said, “Since the operation is being done, it’s better to get it done in totality. So, I have directed the CID to probe all exams held since 2014,” he said.

On structural reforms in recruitment examinations, the chief minister said a committee under senior IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal would be instituted to look into the examination process and suggest corrective measures to make it foolproof.

Meanwhile, celebrations broke out at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium among the protesting students following the announcement. They were not immediately available for comment on their future course of action.