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UP govt cancels teachers’ exam after paper leak, Yogi says ‘guilty to be charged as gangsters’

UP Police found question paper for Sunday's exam had already been leaked, arrested people early morning, leading to cancellation. Opposition parties accuse Yogi govt of corruption.

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Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced that those ‘guilty’ of leaking the question paper of a major entrance exam for teachers in the state will be charged under the ‘Gangsters Act’ and their property will be seized.

On Sunday, Yogi’s government was forced to cancel the Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test (UPTET) 2021 — an eligibility test for primary or upper primary teachers to take classes in state-board affiliated schools — after the UP Police found that the question paper had been leaked.

The leak sparked outrage, with Opposition parties levelling charges of corruption against the government.

Over 20 lakh students were set to appear for the entrance exam.

Acting on a tip-off, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force arrested 23 persons from across the state in the early hours of Sunday. They shared the information with the government, which then cancelled the exam.

“Twenty-three people, including a few from Bihar, have been arrested from across the state. A few photocopies of the question papers were found from those arrested. Investigation is underway,” UP Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Prashant Kumar, said in a video statement.

The exam will now be held next month and the applicants will not have to fill any forms, the government said.


Also read: Hardcore BJP voters in UP’s Baghpat don’t believe Modi’s ‘change of heart’, Yogi gets thumbs-up


Fresh political slugfest

Speaking at an event in Deoria Sunday, hours after the paper was cancelled, Yogi Adityanath promised tough action against the ‘guilty’.

“Our government will take strong action against such people,” he said, adding that charges will be filed under the ‘Gangsters Act’ — the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 — and their property will be seized.  

UP Basic Education Minister Satish Dwivedi told reporters in Lucknow that an order has been issued to file an FIR in the matter and the investigation has been handed over to the UP STF so that the accused can be identified and strict action can be taken against them.

“The aspirants will be able to write the exam again at no extra cost in a month’s time,” he added.

However, the Opposition parties hit out at the Yogi government over the alleged paper leak, levelling graft charges in the case.

“Cancellation of UPTET 2021 exam paper due to leak is playing with the future of 20 lakh unemployed candidates. Paper leaks, cancellation of exams and results have become commonplace under the BJP government. UP is at the peak of educational corruption,” Samajwadi Party national president and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav said in a statement on Twitter.

“There will be a revolution of the unemployed. There will be a change in 2022,” he added, in a reference to next year’s assembly polls.

“Corruption in recruitment, paper leak has become the identity of the BJP government. Due to the paper leak of UP TET today, the hard work of lakhs of youths got ruined. Every time the paper is out, Yogi Adityanath ji‘s government has saved the big fish involved in corruption, so corruption is at its peak,” tweeted Congress UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)


Also read: Colleges, expressways, airports: Why BJP is looking east in UP with ‘Purvanchal Vikas Model’


 

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