There were noisy scenes on Wednesday in the Rajasthan Assembly, a day after an Amendment Bill was introduced enhancing the existing punishment up to life imprisonment for those involved in leaking question papers. Opposition BJP MLAs attacked the Congress government and said paper leaks jeopardise the future of youths competing for government jobs.
Probe all exams
Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore, who raised the matter during Zero Hour, demanded that all competitive exams conducted by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) be probed by the CBI. The BJP MLAs entered the well of the House raising slogans and later staged a walkout to protest against the paper leaks.
The Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday to enhance the maximum sentence for paper leaks from 10 years’ jail to life imprisonment. The minimum imprisonment of five years was also proposed to be increased to 10 years.
The Act making paper leaks in government recruitment exams a punishable offence was passed last year. The law was enacted after a police probe found that question papers for the Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) had been leaked.
Mr. Rathore said any move to increase the punishment would be meaningless when names of “politically influential people” were being mentioned for complicity in paper leaks. “A member of the RPSC was earlier arrested, and another member’s role has been alleged in a complaint on which a former Congress leader has been arrested recently,” he said.
Congress leader held
The Anti-Corruption Bureau of Rajasthan police had on July 15 arrested former Congress leader Gopal Kesawat and three others for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs.18.50 lakh to help a candidate in an Executive Officer recruitment exam conducted by the RPSC.
BJP MLAs Vasudev Devnani and Ashok Lahoti also spoke on the subject during Zero Hour. Mr. Devnani said question papers of many of the 18 examinations conducted by the RPSC during Congress rule had been leaked. He demanded that the RPSC be dissolved and new members appointed to the recruitment body.
In the Statement of Objects and Reasons for the Amendment Bill, the State government said offences relating to use of unfair means were being perpetrated by organised mafias and the existing provisions of punishment in the Act did not have a deterrent effect on them. “Since a fair and reasonable recruitment process is adversely affected by such crimes, more stringent punishment for them is the need of the hour,” it said.
Former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot had also staged protests on the issue, alleging that the State government was going soft on instances of corruption. In his hunger strike in Jaipur on April 11, followed by a five-day yatra from Ajmer to Jaipur in May, Mr. Pilot had demanded disbanding of the RPSC, its reconstitution and compensation to candidates who had suffered because of paper leaks.
