Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Mar 6: Several prominent leaders across the party lines, including Shashi Tharoor, former Minister and Congress MP, Manoj Tiwari Delhi State BJP President, Meenakshi Lekhi BJP MP from New Delhi and others have, in one voice, lauded Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space Dr Jitendra Singh for referring the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) issue regarding Combined Graduate Level Examination (CGLE) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and for showing great discretion and judiciousness in resolving a controversy for which, youth in large numbers had been agitating for several months in the union capital.
While Shashi Tharoor personally called up Dr Jitendra Singh to congratulate him for his constructive and positive approach, he also posted a complimentary tweet which said “I trust the word of @Dr JitendraSingh who has approached the issue constructively throughout. He acted on my tweets, calls & personal emails even on a Sunday. If he tells me a CBI inquiry has been ordered, that’s good enough for me. Protestors should know when they have won.”
Manoj Tiwari personally called on Dr Jitendra Singh and thanked him on behalf of the people of Delhi as well as the aspirant candidates for having resolved the tangle with an extreme degree of maturity and wisdom.
Meenakshi Lekhi, in a statement, said that she appreciated the unassuming approach of the Government and requested Dr Jitendra Singh that the inquiry by CBI should be wide – based and should go into all aspects of selection process including the role of coaching centres and coaching institutes.
Meanwhile, speaking to media persons, Dr Jitendra Singh said that even though, currently, there was not enough evidence available or a prima facie case about the allegations made by the youth aspirants regarding the selection process but the Modi Government has, living up to its spirit of responsiveness and sensitivity towards the sentiments of the youth, decided to concede their demand for referring their grievances to the CBI. He said, that for the CGLE conducted by SSC, as many as over 30 lakh candidates had applied across the country for just 8000 to 9000 vacancies. Out of this, around 1.5 lakh were shortlisted for the first-tier exam and according to the SSC authorities, there was no leakage of any question paper, though, they said, there may have been some cheating attempts by a few candidates which called for action against individuals and which could not be described as leakage of paper.
However, Dr Jitendra Singh said, when a delegation of candidates met him in the presence of Chairman SSC, it was decided that, going by the principle “justice should not only be done, it should also appear to have been done”, particularly when it involves youth, after a wide – based discussion with different concerned agencies including the Home Ministry, it was decided that the issue be handed over to the CBI.
Pertinent to mention that following the decision taken after the meeting with Dr Jitendra Singh, the SSC Chairman wrote to Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), requesting for CBI inquiry into all allegations made by the aspirant candidates pertaining to the conduct of CGL Examination 2017. The SSC Chairman also offered to hand over to CBI, all evidences submitted by the protesting candidates regarding the alleged malpractices related to the examination.
As a prompt follow up, the DoPT issued a notification on the same day, requesting CBI to conduct an inquiry into all the aspects of the issue.
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