HSSC constable recruitment exam: Surjewala demands HC-monitored CBI probe into leak of question papers

Chandigarh: Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday demanded a high-court monitored CBI probe into alleged leak of question papers for male police constable recruitment in Haryana as the opposition stepped up attack on the BJP-led government in the state over the issue.

He also demanded the government issue a white paper on jobs given to youth the last nearly seven years.

Amid reports of a paper leak, the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) Saturday cancelled the written examination for the recruitment of male police constables, according to an official order.

Saturday was the first day of the examination and candidates appeared in the paper across 35 centres in the state in two shifts. Papers were scheduled for Sunday also.

The Congress, which is the main opposition party in the state, has sharpened its attack on the BJP dispensation after the exam was cancelled.

On Sunday, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda alleged that exam papers were being sold like "goods at a grocery shop".

Taking a jibe at the state government on how one paper leak scam was coming out after another, Hooda said, "The BJP-JJP government would have surely won gold if there was a medal for paper leaks".

He said the Congress will raise the issue in the coming assembly session.

Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja, in a statement, alleged that the "paper leak mafia" has flourished under the present government.

Hooda, Surjewala and Selja questioned the government's alleged "silence" despite a number of paper-leak cases coming to the fore and claimed that "white-collar" culprits could be involved in the whole thing.

After the exam was cancelled on Saturday, Surjewala tweeted attacking the state's BJP government over the issue. "It is the 28th paper (of various recruitments) which has got leaked," he said.

"Once again police constable paper sold for lakhs of rupees," he alleged, adding that such a leak was not possible unless the "paper leak mafia had the patronage of those in power".

Surjewala on Sunday said that in the past, questions of the Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test, excise inspector recruitment exam and that of ITI Inspectors and others have got leaked.

"But the shameless government is behaving as if nothing has happened," he said in a statement and adding that the claims of transparent recruitment in the state have been exposed.

Hooda, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly, said, "In the last few years, there is hardly any recruitment whose paper has not got leaked. Papers of two big recruitments -- village secretary and constable -- got leaked in the same year."

"Despite this, the government has not got the matter investigated properly. It is clear from this that the roots of corruption are spread from the top to bottom in the present government," he alleged.

Hooda claimed that unemployment was at the maximum in Haryana. If that was not bad enough, the youth also have to face recruitment scams, the Congress leader said.

"The youth who should have been part of the state's progress are themselves getting crushed by the corruption mill. The government has no right to play with the future of youth," the Congress leader said.